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THE GREEKS 
IN AMERICA 

J. P. XENIDES 



THE GREEKS 
IN AMERICA 



BY 

J. P. XENIDES 

LATE OF ANATOLIA COLLEGE AND THEOLOGICAI 
SEMINARY, MARSOVAN, ASIA MINOR, AND SEC- 
RETARY GREEK RELIEF COMMITTEE, 
NEW YORK 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

CHARLES HATCH SEARS 



NEW ^Sp YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



i)-\ 



I 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA. II 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



OCT 12 "22 



INTRODUCTION 

The New American Series consists of studies of 
the following racial groups, together with a study 
of the Eastern Orthodox Churches : 

Albanian and Bulgarian, Armenian and Assyrian- 
Chaldean, Czecho-Slovak, Greek, Italian, Jewish, 
Jugo-Slav (Croatian, Servian, Slovenian), Magyar, 
Polish, Kussian and Euthenian, or Ukrainian, Span- 
ish (Spaniards) and Portuguese, Syrian. 

Those studies, made under the auspices of the 
Interchurch World Movement, were undertaken to 
show, in brief outline, the social, economic and re- 
ligious background, European or Asiatic, of each 
group and to present the experience — social, eco- 
nomic and religious — of the particular group in 
America, with special reference to the contact of 
the given people with religious institutions in 
America. 

It was designed that the studies should be sympa- 
thetic but critical. 

It is confidently believed that this series will help 
America to appreciate and appropriate the spiritual 
wealth represented by the vast body of New Ameri- 
cans, each group having its own peculiar heritage 
and potentialities ; and will lead Christian America, 
so far as she will read them, to become a better lover 
of mankind. 

The writer, in each case, is a kinsman or has had 
direct and intimate relationship with the people, or 
group of peoples, presented. First hand knowledge 
and the ability to study and write from a deeply 



Ti INTRODUCTION 

sympathetic and broadly Christian viewpoint were 
primary conditions in the selection of the authors. 

The author of this volume, Eev. J. P. Xenides, was 
born of Greek parents in CsBsarea, Asia Minor. His 
preparatory education was obtained in Asia Minor 
and Greece, his college course in Marsovan and his 
theological training at New College, Edinburgh. He 
taught for 20 years in Anatolia College and Marso- 
van Theological Seminary. He has traveled exten- 
sively in Greece and Asia Minor. He is secretary 
of the Greek Eelief Committee in New York. His 
nationality, education and work peculiarly fit him 
to write this book. 

These manuscripts were published through the 
courtesy of the Interchurch World Movement with 
the cooperative aid of various denominational 
boards, through the Home Missions Council of Amer- 
ica, and the Council of Women for Home Missions. 

At this writing arrangements have been made for 
the publication of only six of the Series, namely: 
Czecho-Slovak, Greek, Italian, Magyar, Polish and 
Kussian, but other manuscripts will be published as 
soon as funds or advance orders are secured. 

A patient review of all manuscripts, together with 
a checking up of facts and figures, has been made 
by the Associate Editor, Dr. Frederic A. Gould, to 
whom we are largely indebted for statistical and 
verbal accuracy. The editor is responsible for the 
general plan and scope of the studies and for ques- 
tions of policy in the execution of this work. 

Charles Hatch Seaes. 



PREFACE 

The subject of the present study is one dear to 
the writer's heart, and on which he has been brood- 
ing for years. Many statements express the out- 
come of his long experience as an educator and 
worker in the Greek Field in Asia Minor, Greece and 
the United States. 

Valuable information was obtained from personal 
interviews and discussion of the topics treated here 
with prominent clergymen and laymen in the Greek 
communities in the United States. Among them, 
he would mention Archbishop Meletis of Athens; 
Bishop Alexander Kodostolou of New York ; Rev. J. 
Alexopoulos of Pittsburgh, Pa. ; Prof. Carrol Brown 
of the College of the City of New York; Prof. 
Theodore Ion, attorney and member of the Hellenic 
American Society, New York City; Mr. Frank W. 
Jackson, attorney and chairman of the Relief Com- 
mittee for Greeks of Asia Minor ; Rev. Thos. Lacey 
of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Prof. A. E. Phoutrides of Har- 
vard University; Rev. D. Callimahos of Brooklyn, 
N. Y.; M. Geo. Caranicholas, New York City; Dr. 
R. Demos of Harvard; Dr. S. I. Paul, Springfield, 
Mass.; representatives of the prominent Greek 
papers, especially Atlantis and National Herald, and 
many other friends and acquaintances. 

As a speaker of the Near East Relief, the writer 
visited several of the outstanding Greek communi- 
ties of the country, such as Boston, Lowell, Haver- 
hill, Springfield, Holyoke, and Pittsfield, Mass.; 
Newark, Trenton, and Orange, N. J.; Albany, Troy, 

vii 



viu PREFACE 

Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buf- 
falo, K Y.; Erie, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and S. 
Bethlehem, Pa. ; Washington, D. 0. ; Canton, Cleve- 
land, Toledo, and Youngstown, Ohio; Detroit and 
Ann Arbor, Mich. ; and Chicago, HI. Local matters 
were observed and leaders interviewed at each place. 

Questionnaires were sent out in the spring of 1920 
to all the Priests, Greek Protestant pastors and 
other prominent orthodox leaders in different parts 
of America. Those who responded to the request 
supplied valuable, suggestive and informing ma- 
terial. 

Among the various books and articles consulted, 
the following should be mentioned with grateful ac- 
knowledgment : Hellenism, or Greeks m America, by 
S. G. Canoutas, New York; Greek Immigration, by 
Prof. H. P. Fairchild, of N. Y. University; Greeks in 
America, by Rev. Thomas Burgess. Much valuable 
information was derived from the Atlantis and 
National Herald, as both give daily important and 
interesting news about the Greeks in America. 

The writer would take this opportunity to thank 
warmly all the friends who gave time and attention 
to answering his questions and giving valuable help. 
He begs specially to thank Rev. Thos. Burgess of 
New York, who kindly read the manuscript and 
made many helpful and valuable suggestions. The 
present work was prepared in the spring of 1920 
for the Literchurch World Movement. Owing to the 
discontinuance of that organization, its printing was 
delayed. Meanwhile— between the summer of 1920 
and the end of 1921— such significant events took 
place in Greece and the JSTear East as to affect 
greatly conditions in the Greek conmiunities in 
America. Under the pressure of other duties the 
writer revised a number of paragraphs and added 
some new material to meet and explain the new con- 
ditions and changes. 



PREFACE ix 

The work is incomplete and sketchy, as there was 
no time to make a complete survey of the entire field 
and all did not answer the questionnaire. Still the 
ground covered is representative of the whole field 
and throws light on the entire subject under discus- 
sion. 

J. P. X. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I EUROPEAN BACKGROUND: . . ,, . 15 

History and Racial Relationship ... 15 

Present Political Situation .... 23 
Political Conditions in the Near East as 

Affecting Emigration from America . 30 
Political Conditions as Inviting Unrest in 

America 30 

Economic Conditions 31 

Social Conditions 41 

Recreation 46 

Moral Standards 47 

Leadership 53 

Religious Conditions 54 

11 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA: . ... 73 

Immigration 73 

Return Movement to Greece .... 77 

Economic Conditions 80 

Standard of Living and Wages ... 84 

Unrest 87 

III THE GREEKS IN AMERICA: . ... 88 

Social Conditions 88 

Recreation 88 

Family Life 91 

Relation to Other Racial Groups ... 94 
Relation to American People, Ideals, Insti- 
tutions, etc. 96 

Social Organizations and Forces . . .102 

Educational Forces 107 

Forces of Assimilation 112 

Results as Reflected in War Service . . 115 
xi 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAQB 

IV THE GREEKS IN AMERICA: . ... 118 

Greek Churches 118 

Forms of Religious Approach . . . 132 
Evangelical "Work Among the Greeks by 

Protestant Churches 133 

Literature 136 

V GREEKS IN AMERICA: 139 

Special Problems 139 

Recommendations 145 

APPENDICES 

- — I Greek Newspapers in the United States 153 

II Bibliography 154 

INDEX 159 



II 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Cliapter I 
EUROPEAN BACKGEOUND 

HISTORY AND RACIAL RELATIONSHIP 

Greeks and greater Greece. — The Greeks call 
themselves Hellenes and their country Hellas. They 
belong to the Aryan or Indo-European group of 
nations and have inhabited more than 3000 years the 
Grecian Peninsula and the islands surrounding it. 
Hellas was wherever Greeks lived. So there was 
and is to-day a greater Greece extending to Mace- 
donia, Thrace and Western Asia Minor, character- 
istically Greek, from time immemorial, in language, 
customs, manners, religion and folklore. 

Greek colonies. — The Greeks, like the Phoenicians 
of old, and the British in modern times, were a sea- 
faring, trading and colonizing people. Since the 
sixth century B. C, there have been Greek colonies 
all along the coasts of the Bosphorus and the ^gean, 
Marmora and Black Seas, which regions continue 
to be Greek in character, speech and influence. 

Spread of Greek Influence. — Greek influence and 
colonization were further spread through the ex^ 
pedition of Alexander the Great (334-323 B. C.) into 
Asia Minor and the further East, comprising the 
whole Persian Empire. Alexander's policy to bring 
the East into relationship with the West was effec- 
tively continued by his successors, especially the 

15 



16 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Seleucidse in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt. 
Thus wider areas came under the spell of Hellenism 
in Asia and many different races and people were 
Hellenized. 

Connections between the ancient and modern 
Greece. — There has been much valuable time and 
space wasted with discussions as to the physical 
descent of the modem, from the ancient Greeks, or 
the connection between them. The Greek race 
has never ceased to exist in history, so that 
there must at least be some descendants of 
the ancient, among the modern Greeks. And it 
is equally true that many races and people in 
Asia Minor and elsewhere have been thoroughly 
assimilated and Hellenized. All the people bearing 
the name of Greek at present are imbued with the 
same national consciousness, and cherish the same 
national ideals. They are Hellenic in speech, man- 
ners, customs, religion, folklore, and temperament. 
The modern Greeks present the same traits and 
characters, intellectual and moral, as characterized 
the ancient. ^ ' There can be no doubt that spiritually 
the modern Greeks are the direct inheritors of the 
ancients. A familiarity with the modern people 
brings countless illustrations of the similarity of 
thought and character between the old and the new'* 
(Professor H. P. Fairchild). ^^In the Greeks who 
seek our shores and those of whom Homer sang 
or whom Aristophanes caricatured, there is the same 
alertness of mind, inventiveness and plausibility, the 
same liveliness of disposition, the same courtesy and 
hospitality to strangers, the same capacity for self- 
sacrifice, the same love of adventure and readiness 
to take a chance, the same delight in haggling over 
a bargain, and the same proneness to disputation 
often running into dissension'' (Professor William 
Cole, Immigrant Races in Massachusetts: The 
Greeks), 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 17 

Romans spread Hellenism. — As students of his- 
tory know, though Eome conquered Greece physi- 
cally, she was conquered by her captive intellectu- 
ally — '^the captured took captives of their captors." 
The Eomans spread Greek ideas, language and civi- 
lization far and wide as missionaries of Greek cul- 
ture. It is indeed remarkable how the Eastern Eo- 
man, or Byzantine, Empire was thoroughly Hellen- 
ized, became Greek in reality, though continuing 
Eoman in name. Its long rule of 1,000 years con- 
stitutes one of the most significant periods of Gre- 
cian history. In order to understand the modern 
Greek in his church and theology, customs and su- 
perstition, we must study the Byzantine history. 
The modem Greek church is a fine picture of Byzan- 
tine times — especially in architecture, painting, rit- 
ual and religious ideas and usages. 

Fall of Constantinople. — During the Dark Ages 
Constantinople was the main center of learning, edu- 
cation, and Hellenic civilization. It is needless to 
remind the reader of the connection between the 
Fall of Constantinople (1453 A. D.) and the Eenais- 
sance or the revival of learning in Europe. 

Turkish conquest and oppression. — Through the 
Turkish invasion into Greek Territories, especially 
the conquest of Constantinople (1453 A.D.) there 
begins the real Dark Ages of Hellenism. For four 
centuries, or more, the Greeks were subjected to 
untold oppression and persecution. The Turkish 
rule in Greek territories — in fact, wherever the 
Turk set his foot — ^meant age-long slavery, torture 
and martyrdom. Still in the midst of all the op- 
pression and tyranny the Greeks kept the torch 
of Hellenic culture and Christian civilization burn- 
ing, even though dimly, thus keeping alive the mt- 
ness for truth. It is indeed a matter of real wonder 
that Hellenism and Christianity were not wiped out 
entirely under Moslem tyranny. Though weakened, 



18 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

crippled, and even amputated in many parts, the 
church continued in life steadfastly and persever- 
ingly, and through the church there survived the Hel- 
lenic people and ideas also. 

War of Greek Independence. — As it was in the 
ark of the church that the Greek nation was pre- 
served and kept alive, so it was through the repre- 
sentatives of the church that the banner of freedom 
was unfurled and the War of Greek Independence 
started, March 25 (O. S.), 1821 A.D.* For seven 
years (1821-27) the Greek people were engaged in 
an unequal struggle against the unscrupulous hordes 
of Turks (in Turkey) who were still quite able to 
inflict vengeance and death on the adventurous 
Greeks who dared to rise against the Sultan. The 
Greek Patriarch, as the head of the Greek people, 
was hanged at one of the gates of the Patriarchate 
at Phanar, Constantinople, which gate continues 
closed to the present day, and will be opened only 
when the Greek race is emancipated from the for- 
eign yoke. Many bishops and other clergymen were 
executed also. 

A fit parallel to the modern Armenian massacres, 
— Greeks were massacred in many places, including 
women and children. The massacres on the island 
of Chios (1822) were among the darkest of such 
outrages. Almost all the Greeks on the island were 
either killed or sold into slavery. Comparatively 
few escaped. The Greeks fought valiantly through- 
out the revolutionary period of seven years. In the 
first three years it seemed as if Greece had won. In 
three months the Turk was driven out of Pelopon- 
nesus and a provisional government established. 
The great fleet swept clean the seas, and everywhere 
brilliant deeds of Greek valor were recorded. But 
the weakened Sultan called in the aid of his vassal, 

* On the Day of Annunciation. This day continued to be the 
Greek Independence Day. 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 19 

IbraMin Pasha of Egypt, who boasted he would re- 
duce the whole of Peloponnesus into an Arabian des- 
ert, which he almost succeeded in doing. But Greece 
was destined to live. Her day of deliverance came 
at last. The admirals of Britain, France, and Eus- 
sia burned the Turkish fleet at Navarino, 1827 A.D., 
and proclaimed Greece free and independent. This 
was formally confirmed by the Treaty of Adrianople 
in 1828, after Turkish defeat by Eussia. 

Small size of Greece handicapped progress. — Un- 
fortunately only a small portion of Greek Territory 
was set free, consisting of Peloponnesus and the 
mainland of Greece to the south of Thessaly. Al- 
though the Greeks kept under the Turkish yoke, took 
a prominent part in the revolution, they were ex- 
cluded from joining the new State owing to the self- 
ish intrigues of certain European Powers, especially 
because of the opposition of Austria and the Holy 
Alliance, Greece was kept within impossibly narrow 
boundaries, thus being condemned from the very 
start to economic struggles and hardships, even fore- 
boding failure. After the assassination of Capo 
d'Istrias, the first President of Greece, Prince 
Otho, the son of the King of Bavaria, was put at 
the head of the kingdom. It had a population of 
but 650,000. A monarchy was established with all 
the consequent expenses of a royal court, a host of 
officials at home, and ambassadors and ministers 
abroad. The resources of the country were limited. 
The portions constituting the new state, especially 
Peloponnesus, consists of isolated mountains which 
divide the country as it was in its ancient history, 
into small separate city states. To add further 
handicaps there were no means of communication 
and transportation in the country. 

National aspiration continued. — Such difficulties, 
however, did not discourage the Greek people. The 
national aspiration for the ultimate emancipation 



20 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

of the Greek race continued to inspire the Greeks 
everywhere. Thus we have a chronic state of rest- 
lessness and a series of uprisings among the Greeks, 
kept under Turkish rule — especially in Crete and 
Macedonia. Every such movement drove hosts of 
refugees into Greece. The care and sheltering of 
these refugees added greatly to the burdens and ex- 
penses of the treasury, creating at the same time 
feelings of indignation and protest among the peo- 
ple, thus threatening all the time the outbreak of 
war. 

Change of dynasty. — The autocratic rule of Otho 
caused another Revolution in 1862 and he was forced 
to abdicate. He was replaced by the second son of 
the King of Denmark, who became George I. Eng- 
land, which since 1815, had kept possession of the 
Ionian Islands (Corfu, Leukas, Cephalonia, Ithaca, 
and Zante), returned them to Greece in 1863. The 
new constitution of 1864 had established a parlia- 
mentary regime with a single assembly elected by 
universal suffrage. 

Union of Thessaly. — Thessaly was united with 
Greece in 1882, although promised along with Epirus 
at the Berlin Conference, in 1878, at the end of the 
Russo-Turkish War. Epirus, however, was kept 
under the Turkish yoke and was delivered at last in 
part at the Balkan War, in 1913, the fate of North- 
ern Epirus still remaining unsettled even after the 
Great War. 

Greco-Turkish war. — As a result of an uprising 
in Crete there took place the War of 1897 between 
Greece and Turkey in which the former was de- 
feated, and compelled to pay a war indemnity. Still 
it ultimately led to the gradual deliverance of Crete 
from Turkish tyranny and its union with Greece. 
The Great Powers compelled Turkey to withdraw 
its troops from Crete which was made autonomous, 
with Prince George of Greece as high commissioner. 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 21 

Balkan wars. — The emancipation of wider areas 
from Turkish oppression was achieved as a result of 
the Balkan War (1912-13). Thus Epirus with Ya- 
nina, southern and a part of eastern Macedonia, 
including" Salonica, with the Islands of Mytilene, 
Chios, Samos, Lemnos, Imbros, and Crete were all 
united with the Kingdom of Greece. Thus Greece 
was doubled in population. 

Great idea. — Still the *^ Great idea/' (Megali 
idea), cherished by all the Greeks — the emancipa- 
tion of all Greeks from the Turkish yoke, and the 
Union of the Grecian territories with the mother 
country — ^was far from realization. 

The World War.— The Great War broke the 
chains of many races, and people enslaved for cen- 
turies to autocratic rule. This it seems will effect 
the deliverance of further numbers of Greeks from 
Turkish oppression and their union with their be- 
loved Hellas. 

Treaty of Sevres. — ^According to the terms of the 
treaty of Sevres, that ended the war between Greece 
and Turkey, the greater part of the Greeks subject 
to Turkey were to be freed and join with Greece. 
Such important centers of Greek life and influence 
as western and eatern Thrace, thus became parts of 
Greece at once, and the Smyrna region will ulti- 
mately do the same. According to special arrange- 
ments Venizelos concluded with Italy, Northern 
Epirus and the Dodecanese would in due time join 
the mother country.* But the unfortunate Near 
East was not to enjoy peace and settled conditions 
in this way. While the Sultan's government in Con- 
stantinople sanctioned the treaty of Sevres (Aug. 
9, 1920) the nationalist Turks under Mustapha 
Kemal Pasha started a rebellion in the interior of 

* See speech of Venizelos at the Greek Parliament, New YorJfi 
Times, June 13, 1920. 



22 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Asia Minor with Angora as their capital, organized 
a so-called National Assembly claiming to represent 
the Turkish Empire, repudiated the Treaty of 
Sevres, and declared they would fight to a finish for 
the integrity of Turkey, asserting that Thrace and 
Smyrna were integral parts of the Empire. Greece 
had to fight to defend her cause, which is not im- 
perialistic as some mistakenly assert, but a war of 
emancipation. Both sides are determined to fight 
to the end. The outcome is problematical. The 
war against Kemal was started by Venizelos with 
the approval of the Entente Powers, but since the 
return of King Constantine, the Entente declared 
neutrality and Greece fought single-handed during 
1921. 

The Nationalist program of extermination. — The 
Nationalists, taking advantage of the war with 
Greece, have been carrying out their program of ex- 
termination of the non-Turkish elements in Asia 
Minor. They have deported almost all the male 
Greeks and Armenians from Pontus (modern Trebi- 
zond), the towns and villages along the southern 
shore of the Black Sea and plundered their posses- 
sions. Many regions in the interior of Asia Minor 
have been scenes of deportation, massacre, impris- 
onment and execution of innocent people after mock 
trial. The deportees wander in inhospitable Turk- 
ish and Kurdish regions in the interior. The Arme- 
nian deportations of 1915-1919 had already demon- 
strated what an effective means of extermination 
deportation is in the hands of the Turk. If Greece 
achieves the union of the greater part of her chil- 
dren under her rule, 75 to 80 percent of the ten mil- 
lion Greeks in the world will be united. The rest 
are scattered mostly in what remains as Turkey, 
Caucasus, Egypt, U. S. A., England, France, etc. 
The rights and security of those remaining in Tur- 
key are guaranteed by treaty amendments. 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 23 



PEESENT POLITICAL. SITUATION 

Military revolution. — To understand the present 
political situation in Greece we must review the 
main events leading to, and following the military 
revolution or uprising there in 1909, and the appear- 
ance in affairs of Eleutherios Venizelos of Crete. 
The defeat in the Turkish War of 1897 aroused the 
indignation of the leaders in the army and created 
wide discontent against the royal family, particu- 
larly against the Crown Prince, later, King Constan- 
tine, who was field marshal. The prevalence of 
favoritism and the want of proper discipline in the 
army and in fact in all the other departments of the 
little state, the political corruption and rank par- 
tizanship throughout the country gave ground to 
much complaint and stirred up the indignation of 
patriotic and ardent army men, which at last burst 
into the rebellion of Ghoudi in 1909, a military up- 
rising that aimed at clearing the army of corrup- 
tion, restoring order and discipline, and thus giving 
the country a military force worthy of its national 
aims and aspirations. Constantine had to leave the 
country, and the patriotic officers took charge of the 
situation. 

Greece had long been suffering through lack of 
good leadership. There were too many leaders and 
petty politicians hunting offices. Greece needed a 
man, a leader, and he was found in the person of 
Eleutherios Venizelos of Crete. He was called from 
Crete to come over and help the country in her work 
of regeneration, and preparation for the fulfillment 
of her national program. 

Eleutherios Venizelos. — ** Venizelos, a chivalrous 
character and a true patriot, had taken a leading 
part in the affairs of Crete in her uprising as well as 
in time of peace. His father was one of the heroes 



24 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

of the Greek War of Independence (1821-27) and 
had left him as his only legacy, an ardent patriotism. 
He was for order and discipline in the army, and 
throughout the state. He believed in the rule of 
principle, rather than the personal whims of the 
former political leaders.'' He recalled the crown 
prince from exile and Constantine was reinstated in 
the army. Thus the two principal factors in the 
recent events and the present political situation in 
Greece appear on the stage, and Venizelos began 
with Constantine to cooperate first, unanimously for 
the good of Greece. 

''The arrival on the scene of a single man, of an 
upright, unselfish and decided character, was enough 
to coordinate all the active and capable men of the 
country, and to give Greece an exceptional forward 
movement. By appealing to France for a military 
mission in order to reorganize the army, and to 
England for a naval mission to do the same for the 
navy he put his country in shape^ to participate 
gloriously in the Balkan War against Turkey in 
1912-13, and victoriously to counter the treachery of 
Bulgaria in June, 1913.'' 

Balkan league. — Mr. Venizelos as a true and far- 
sighted statesman was for friendship with Bulgaria 
and other Balkan states and thought a league among 
them would be the best means for the pacification 
and prosperity of the Balkans and Europe at large. 

Turkish revolution. — He saw that the so called 
Turkish Revolution of 1908 with its motto of *' Lib- 
erty, Equality, Fraternity and Justice" was a mere 
artifice intended to deceive Europe and the world, 
whereas the Young Turks aimed in reality at the 
Turkification of the non-Turkish and non-Moslem 
elements in Turkey, in accordance with their open 
program ''Turkey for the Turks." The Young 
Turks' program was detrimental to the best inter- 
ests of all the Balkan nations as well as of the Arme- 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 25 

nians, Arabs, Jews and other non-Turkish elements. 
It aimed at the ultimate assimilation and absorption 
of these superior elements in Turkey by the inferior 
Turanian Turks. 

Balkan wars. — The Balkan League gave a fatal 
blow to the Young Turks. The first Balkan War 
demonstrated the weakness and rottenness of the 
Turkish State on the one hand, the vitality and the 
strength of the Union and cooperation of the Balkan 
nations on the other. Had the league continued in 
harmony, or rather had the intrigues of the Central 
Powers allowed it, the Balkan allies could easily 
have marched on Constantinople and driven the 
Turks, bag and baggage out of Europe. 

Unfortunately the intrigues of Germany and Aus- 
tria combined with the treachery and insatiable 
greed of Bulgaria, led to the second Balkan War 
(June, 1913) ending with the defeat of Bulgaria. 
The Treaty of Bucharest gave a decided superiority 
to Eumania, Serbia and Greece in the Balkans. 

World War. — This upset subtle and long planned 
schemes of Germany and Austria, as well as Bul- 
garia and Turkey, and thus served as a precursor 
of the terrible World War, 1914-18. 

Constantine and Venizelos differ. — So far Con- 
stantine and Venizelos as well as all the leaders in 
Greece worked harmoniously. But when the matter 
of Greece joining the Great War was taken up, 
opinion was divided. Venizelos was from the very 
start for joining the Entente Allies ; the very inter- 
ests of Greece, he thought, required it; her geo- 
graphic position, the historical, traditional friend- 
ship of the Entente to Greece, as well as economic 
reasons demanded it; besides, by the terms of a 
treaty with Serbia, Greece was in honor bound to 
join the conflict. Not so thought King Constantine 
and the General Military Staff. They regarded 
Prussian militarism invincible, and repudiated or 



26 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

explained away the Serbian Treaty. They thought 
the best interests of Greece required her remaining 
neutral. To join the war, Constantine asserted, 
would mean entire ruin for Greece, and he wanted 
to save her from the fate of Serbia and Rumania. 
Besides, if Greece joined the Entente, he further 
asserted, the hatred of the Turks would be aroused 
and millions of Greeks residing in Turkey would be 
in danger of massacre and outrage. 

Venizelists and Royalists. — Thus developed the 
two groups or parties of Venizelists and Royalists. 
The latter claim to have been for neutrality, but the 
Venizelists charge them with pro-Germanism. 

Venizelos ousted. — As Constantine did not ap- 
prove the policy of Venizelos, he dismissed him 
from office, February, 1915, though he was elected 
by the people by a great majority. Venizelos was 
reelected in May, 1915, but contrary to the constitu- 
tion, Constantine ousted him again, October, 1915. 

Revolutionary government at Salonica. — Failing 
to persuade the king to follow the majority of the 
Grecian people and thus save Greece and his dy- 
nasty, Venizelos, along with General Danglis and 
Admiral Coundouriotis, left Athens, June, 1917, and 
went to Crete and then to Salonica, and started the 
revolutionary movement which resulted in the de- 
thronement of King Constantine by the Allies at the 
request of the revolutionary government of Veni- 
zelos. Alexander, the second, son of Constantine, 
ascended the throne. 

Services of the Greek army. — The Greek army 
rendered a great service to the Entente cause in 
Macedonia. The first shaft was driven into the Bul- 
garian front by the Greeks, and the yielding of 
Bulgaria was the precursor of the total break of the 
Central Powers. Venizelos was hailed by promi- 
nent statesmen as one of the foremost leaders at 
the Peace Conference in Paris and San Remo. He 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 27 

secured for Greece the main points she fought for. 
While Greece was rejoicing over the success of the 
treaties Venizelos secured, there happened an un- 
toward accident that caused upheavals in the po- 
litical history of Greece. King Alexander was 
bitten by a monkey in Tatoi, the royal summer resort 
near Athens, as the result of which he died. Ad- 
miral Coundouriotis was made regent and the 
crown was offered to Prince Paul, the youngest son 
of Constantine. He refused on the ground that it 
belonged first to his father and his elder brother 
George, the Crown Prince. It was then election 
time. Venizelos made it clear in his appeal to the 
people that it was a contest between himself and 
Constantine. They must choose one or the other. 
November 14, 1920, was a signal day in Greek his- 
tory. In spite of all the diplomatic victories and un- 
precedented advantages he had secured for Greece, 
Venizelos was defeated. He at once left Greece. 
In his farewell to his party followers he asked them 
to respect the vote of the people and support the 
party in power. The aged statesman, Demetrius 
Ehallis, headed the new government, and the 
dowager Queen Olga took the regency as Admiral 
Coundouriotis resigned. Although the vote of No- 
vember 14 was at the same time a plebiscite on the 
question of the return of Constantine, still a sep- 
arate plebiscite was taken on December 5th in which 
a vast majority voted for the return of King Con- 
stantine to the throne. According to newspaper re- 
ports the Venizelists took little part in the plebis- 
cite. On December 19, 1920, the king and queen 
returned to Athens, after living in Switzerland since 
June, 1917. Their family had preceded them. The 
main causes for the defeat of Venizelos were (1) The 
war weariness of the Greek people. 

Causes for Venizelos* defeat. — Venizelos, him- 
self, gave this reason, during his visit to New York. 



28 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

He said that though by nature peace-loving, it so 
happened that there was war whenever he was in 
power. So the people thought there would be no 
peace as long as he was in power. His opponents 
promised the disbanding of the troops and a procla- 
mation of peace. (2) Absorbed in diplomatic fights 
in the interest of Greece, he was often absent from 
home and internal affairs were left to his followers. 
Abuses ascribed to some of them embittered the 
people and spoiled the internal policy of Venizelos. 
He is assailed by his opponents as arrogant, over- 
bearing, tyrannous and dictatorial. (3) Constantino 
was viewed by many under the glamor of the halo 
given him as a result of the victories in the Balkan 
,Wars. They could not believe their great field mar- 
shal could have ever been unpatriotic. Conse- 
quently they thought a great injustice was done him 
when he was removed by the Allies. Many also 
resented it as an interference in the internal affairs 
of Greece. (4) The long delays by the powers in 
the settlement of Greek affairs caused much tension 
and strain on the nerves of the people. After the 
armistice they were left to their own resources in 
the fight against the Turks. There seemed no end 
of fighting and no peace in sight, while the powers 
shifted from place to place the discussions of Greco- 
Turkish affairs. The long pent-up feelings burst at 
the election, as Venizelos was a3Sociated and iden- 
tified in the minds of the Greek people with the 
Entente Powers. (5) Old party leaders, while dif- 
fering among themselves, worked together to over- 
throw him. Venizelists assert that graft, and 
manipulation at the polls occurred. Endless dis- 
cussion continues all the time on this and many 
other political points, between the Venizelists and 
Constantinists. Soon after the Venizelist defeat, 
the Entente Powers expressed their disapproval and 
announced definitely that they would withdraw all 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 29 

economic support from Greece if Constantine re- 
turned. In February, 1921, representatives of the 
Entente met in conference in London, the repre- 
sentatives of Greece, headed by Premier Kalogero- 
poulos, and the two Turkish delegations, — one of the 
Sultan's government headed by Twefik Pasha, the 
other of the Nationalist at Angora headed by Bekir 
Sami Bey. The powers offered to mediate between 
the Greeks and Turks and settle their differences, 
sending special commissioners to Smyrna and 
Thrace to determine the relative strength of the 
various elements there. Neither party would accept 
the offer and fighting started early in the spring of 
1921 and continued all summer. Premier Gounaris 
of Greece visited the entente capitals to find loans, 
and to discuss and prepare grounds for possible 
peace terms with Turkey. The results of his visit 
are not known. If no terms can be found for a defi- 
nite peace, war will continue, and the unfortunate 
Near East people have to face further devastation, 
bloodshed and suffering. France has recognized the 
Nationalist government under Kemal and evacuated 
Cilicia, for v/hich France had a mandate from the 
League of Nations. She has also received favorable 
economic and other concessions from the Kemalists. 
The French evacuation has exposed the Christians 
there again to massacre and outrage. The Arme- 
nians have taken refuge in Syria, Greek territory, 
Constantinople and other places of safety. Many 
Greeks have left Cilicia. The withdrawal of French 
troops set free numerous Turkish troops, so that 
Greece has stronger forces to face if the war con- 
tinues. But the morale and equipment of the Greek 
forces is excellent. Both sides have economic dif- 
ficulties, but Kemal is in the worst plight. Thus far, 
he has to a great extent, depended upon plundering 
and confiscating the properties of the Christians 
and others he executes, massacres or deports. 



so THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 



POLITICAL. CONDITIONS IN THE NEAE EAST AS AFFECTING 
EMIGKATION FEOM AMERICA 

Questions of emigration as affected by the politi- 
cal situation in Greece and Turkey depend on the 
solution of the Eastern Question. If conditions in 
the Near East are pacified and settled, if Greece 
realizes her national aspirations by gathering to- 
gether under her fold her children scattered in 
Western Asia Minor, Thrace and the islands under 
Italian occupation and a strong, righteous govern- 
ment is established in what remains as Turkey, 
there will be wider openings and many new fields 
for enterprise in the Near East, and many Greeks 
in America will go back, especially those who had 
come to America to escape Turkish oppression or 
military enslavement. Others will return for rela- 
tives. The percentage, however, of those who re- 
turn will not be great. Inquiries in many cities and 
of various individuals indicate that those settled in 
America, and prospering, will not easily give up cer- 
tainty for uncertainty. Besides those accustomed to 
American ways, ideas and custom.s are disappointed 
on setting foot in the old country and finding their 
dreams of ease and comfort there far from reality, 
and take the first steamer back to the United States. 

Soon after the declaration of the Armistice, there 
was a rush to return of those who had been waiting 
for years to see their relatives and friends, espe- 
cially those who had not heard from them, and were 
anxious to learn their whereabouts. 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS AS INVITING ITNEEST IN AMERICA 

Political conditions in the Near East and unrest 
in America. — Ordinarily conditions in Greece or 
Turkey would scarcely affect any situation in Amer- 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND SI 

ica. But these are extraordinary times and there is 
a great deal of speculation as to possible combina- 
tions between the Young Turks, the Bolsheviki and 
the Tartars. They first dream of a Pan-Turanian 
Alliance between the Turks in Asia Minor and the 
Tartars of Caucasus and Turkestan; they further 
dream and scheme of Pan Islamism, uniting the Mos- 
lems all over the world under the leadership of the 
Turks. Enver and Djemal Pashas are represented 
as scheming with the Bolsheviki in carrying* out 
such plans. 

The Balkans still constitute a danger spot and 
the Eastern Question has always been a cause of 
unrest in Europe and even in the world at large. 
Should the Bolsheviki form alliances with Pan- 
Islamic and Pan-Turanian elements and succeed in 
creating chaos in the Near and Far East, the effects 
may be far-reaching in Europe and even America. 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

The East unchangeable. — The East is unchange- 
able or moves slowly, consequently customs, arts, 
trades, continue pretty much in the same way for 
ages. The fields are plowed with the same kind of 
plow used in patriarchal times. Sheep and goats 
are tended by shepherds to-day as in classical or 
Biblical times. 

Trader's banks. — Greeks are commercial and sea- 
faring people. So they are the principal traders, 
bankers, and merchants in the Levant. The Na- 
tional Bank of Greece, the Bank of Athens, the 
Ionian Bank, the Bank of Mytilene, the Bank of 
Orient are the principal houses, and have branches 
in many important cities both in Greece and Turkey. 

Export and import. — There is a great deal of im- 
port and export business between Greece and Tur- 
key on the one hand, Europe and America on the 



32 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

other. Articles of luxury, manufactured goods, 
woolen and cotton are imported; English goods 
stood very high both in price and quality. French 
goods competed with them, but the German and 
Austrian goods flooded the Levant before the war, 
and at cheaper prices and usually of lower quality. 
Eeady-made clothes from Austria filled the markets 
in Constantinople, Smyrna, etc. Italy gradually 
gained ground and competed with other European 
nations successfully both in the price and quality 
of the goods. 

The principal exports from Greece and Turkey are 
raw material, wool, cotton, silk, flax, tobacco, cur- 
rants, raisins, olive oil, dry figs, sponges, silver, 
lead, zinc, manganese, and iron. (The imports in 
1901 were $27,733,010; in 1914 they were $35,026,- 
905, and the exports $23,425,375.) The imports at 
the beginning of the war had decreased enormously 
in spite of their apparent increase owing to the 
doubling of the prices. Commerce between the 
United States and Greece has greatly increased 
since the armistice, November, 1918. In 1916, 1,718,- 
500 pounds of figs were exported to the United 
States, but not a pound was shipped in 1917 owing 
to lack of shipping facilities. The export of to- 
bacco to the United States grew. In 1915 the value 
of the tobacco export to the United States was 
$2,914,627 and in 1917 $14,422,703. Eepresentatives 
of the American Tobacco Co. are in Kavalla, Mace- 
donia, and in Samsoun, Asia Minor. The imports 
from the United States to Greece during the eleven 
months ending November 30, 1921, were $28,826,853 
as compared with $35,761,896 in the same months of 
1920. The exports from Greece to the United States 
during the months ending November 30, 1921, were 
$20,713,044 as compared with $19,278,039 of the same 
period in 1920. (Atlantic Monthly, January 7, 
1922.) 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND S3 

Navigation. — Greek ships and sailing boats visit 
the principal ports along the Black, Marmora, 
^gean and the Mediterranean seas. They even 
visit England and America. The Greek National 
Steamship Company, with headquarters in Piraeus, 
Greece, has regular steamer service between 
Piraeus and New York. 

Greek ships commandeered by the Allies during 
the war rendered a great service to the cause of 
the Entente, although the Greek owners had to 
forego much of the profit they would otherwise have 
reaped. Still many shipowners accumulated im- 
mense wealth. The number of steamships that en- 
tered the port of Piraeus during 1916 was 2,658 of 
2,329,919 tons and of these 2,494 steamships of 
1,898,059 tons carried the Greek flag. 

Industries. — Greece, and Turkey are not indus^ 
trial countries. Industry is yet in a primitive state. 
Masons, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers and all 
other artisans in Thrace and Asia Minor, and^ of 
course in Greece are Greeks. But factories are lim- 
ited to certain centers as Piraeus, Salonica, and 
Smyrna. Still there has been remarkable progress 
in industry during the last ten or fifteen years, and 
if peace and settled conditions prevail soon, there 
will be rapid strides taken in many lines. 

The following notes on the industrial census re- 
cently taken in Greece were published by the United 
States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 
in 1918, and show remarkable progress in all 
branches of industry during the last ten or fifteen 
years. 

^^ According to the details given, there are in 
Greece 2,213 large or small factories employing a 
total of 36,124 hands. Of these 1,188 are small con- 
cerns employing a total of 3,579 hands ; 743 are mod- 
erate concerns employing a total of 23,700 hands. 
Among the 232 businesses which represent princi- 



S4- THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

pally the large industries, spinning and weaving fac- 
tories which represent 28 in all, with 10,004 hands, 
are most prominent. Next come 72 factories or 
mills for the preparation of various kinds of pro- 
visions with 3,665 hands ; 28 engineering works with 
2,003 employees ; 23 chemical works with 1,890 hands ; 
16 tanneries and leather working factories with 776 
hands ; and other smaller factories engaged in vari- 
ous industries. The total value of the 2,213 fac- 
tories amounts to 260,363,647 drachmas ($50,250,- 
184), and their total annual returns are estimated 
at 372,274,308 drachmas ($71,851,801). Of the latter 
total the small factories are responsible for 106,- 
550,025 drachmas ($20,564,155); larger factories 
for 250,794,810 drachmas ($48,403,378) , and the 
large factories for 314,940,473 drachmas ($60,783,- 
511). Almost one-half of the value of the annual 
products of the 282 large factories is derived from 
the 12 large flour mills. With regard to the motive 
power, 570 of the factories are driven by steam 
power, 583 by electricity, 326 by hydraulic power, 
308 by gas, and 235 by petroleum (oil engines)." 

Agriculture. — Greece is a mountainous country, 
and although peasants are occupied mainly with 
agriculture, it is in a backward state. Great prog- 
ress, however, has been made in recent years, and 
the government is exerting every effort to promote 
it. English and American agricultural implements 
are being introduced. The prospect for the future is 
very bright. The government has agricultural 
schools and model farms for encouraging agricul- 
ture. Agricultural expositions are held from time 
to time to promote and stimulate it. 

Chief crops. — Only one-half of the soil in old 
Greece is arable. The chief crops are currants, 
olives, tobacco, grapes, cereals, fruits, and figs. The 
yield of currants in 1917 was 140,000 tons, and in 
1919, 145,000 tons. Olives are the next important 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 35 

crop. The yield of tobacco in 1917 was placed at 
102,275,710 pounds. The estimated yield of wine 
for 1918 was 10,566,800 gallons or nearly double 
that of the year before. 

American Machines. — Thessaly is rich and fertile 
in agriculture, and the Kavalla region in Macedonia 
for tobacco. Tobacco is being cultivated with good 
success in Peloponnesus. American machines are be- 
ing introduced into Smyrna and many parts of Tur- 
key. The American Mission and the Near East Re- 
lief representatives are rendering a great service in 
introducing modern methods and instruments into 
agricultural work in the Levant. 

Cows and dairies. — In Greece, people had some 
prejudice against cows' milk, so goats and sheep 
predominate for milking. The number of cows is 
growing. Mr. J. E. Chrysakis, of Athens has ren- 
dered a great service in promoting dairy-farming 
and his tea-rooms, in Constitution Square, Athens, 
with all the farm products, are well known to Amer- 
icans and Europeans visiting Athens. His farms 
are near Phaleron. He has been instrumental in 
introducing cows from Switzerland. 

Minerals. — The chief mineral products are mag- 
nesite, marble, and emery. In 1914 there were pro- 
duced 117,430 tons of magnesite ; in 1919, 133,858 ; 
in 1916, 176,363; and in 1917, 99,518. Transporta- 
tion difficulties caused a great decrease in mining, 
and almost stopped marble production. 

Roads. — The greatest need of Greece is the good 
roads. Now there are over 3,000 miles of roads. It 
is to the credit of the Greek government that in the 
midst of all the distractions of war that among other 
public works which have engaged their energies are 
the construction and restoration of harbors, the erec- 
tion of lighthouses, the construction of drainage 
works, etc. 

In 1883 there were only 58 miles of railway, but 



36 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

in 1914 about 1,365 were open and 100 more were 
under construction. A ship-canal across the Isthmus 
of Corinth (four miles) was opened in 1893. Greece 
is now connected by rail with the rest of Europe. 
Athens expresses are running regularly to Paris. 

Wages and prices. — Greeks in general are ex- 
tremely temperate in living and wages are propor- 
tionate to that standard. Of course there are great 
differences according to localities, in country and 
town, in Greece or Turkey. The pre-war prices 
were very low everywhere. But since then the prices 
jumped up as elsewhere in the world, money lost 
its purchasing power and things got dearer and 
dearer, and the rate of exchange changed from day 
to day. 

Simple life. — In the interior of Turkey and 
Greece, Greeks live in primitive fashion, with very 
plain diet. Bread — wholesome, wholewheat bread — 
is the staff of life. Onions, cheese, milk, and sour 
or curdled milk, yopJiourd, are in daily use in the 
villages. Fruits are abundant and cheap. Olives, 
olive oil, and fish are very popular. Meat is used in 
the villages sparingly, and is almost exclusively 
lamb and kid. 

The unit of value in Greece is the dracluna, which 
is equivalent to a franc, 19.3 cents; the exchange 
value in dollars in 1918 w^as 19.4 cents. In 1921 it 
varied between 4 and 5 cents. 

In Turkey, the Turkish lira is nominally 100 pias- 
tres, gold, but the paper lira is greatly deteriorated. 
$1 before the war was worth 24 piastres. In 1921 
it brought 200 and more piastres. 

Prices of commodities were doubled, tripled and 
multiplied manifoldly both in Greece and Turkey. 

Students paid in Marsovan before the war $78. 
In 1920 they paid $200. Conditions in Turkey are 
entirely abnormal. Some have accumulated more 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 37 

wealth, while many suffer in ntter destitution and 
misery. 

Greece prosperous. — In Greece, people oij the 
whole are prosperous. Some persons, such as sh] - 
owners, merchants, real-estate and property own- 
ers, grocers and farmers made large fortunes 
during the war. There was no lack of profiteers, 
but many made money honestly. Besides, the Al- 
lied Armies in Macedonia spent large sums of money 
which added much to the prosperity of the country. 
The workers could find ample employment and high 
wages in ammunition works and otherwise under the 
Allies. 

As British, French and Italian money fell off, not 
to say anything about German, Austrian, Eu- 
manian or Turkish money, the Greek drachma could 
not remain an exception. The economic ban of the 
Entente towards Greece since February, 1921, 
greatly lowered the exchange. 

The law of supply and demand regulates interna- 
tional and commercial relation, and as long as Greece 
continues importing from America more than she 
can export to it, the drachma will fetch less. 

Another reason for such deterioration as given by 
Greek statesmen in 1920 was that Greece served as 
the medium of commercial transactions between 
America and certain Balkan and other states. The 
Greek merchants paid gold to America, whereas they 
received in turn deteriorated currency from the 
other nations and the effect was the deterioration of 
the drachma. 

Revenue and expenditure. — The revenue for 1916 
was reported at 86,183,924 drachmas. The following 
figures taken from an English source are given in 
pounds: revenue and expenditure for 1917 respec- 
tively £8,200,000 and £17,280,000, and for 1918, 
£12,000,000, and £36,400,000. The enormous ex- 



S8 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

penses of the army are constantly adding to the na- 
tional debt. 

Still there is great hope that when settled condi- 
tions come, Greece will have such resources of wealth 
in the newly acquired territories, that she will pros- 
per, and will be able gradually to pay her debt. 

Immigration from Greek lands. — Greeks began to 
come to the United States in great numbers in 
1891. Before that only a few had come, either rep- 
resenting commercial houses, like the Ralli Bros., or 
for study in Colleges and Universities, but after 
1891 there followed a growing stream of new comers, 
at first from Peloponnesus, especially from Tripolis, 
and gradually the fever of immigration spread not 
only to all parts of Peloponnesus, but to Attica, 
Thessaly, Epirus, and Euboea, to Macedonia, Thrace 
and Asia Minor and the islands. Indeed no part of 
Greece proper and the Greek regions in Turkey and 
elsewhere was unaffected by it. 

Causes of emigration: 1. Natural tendency to 
adventure. — As causes of the emigration of the 
Greeks may be mentioned: The inborn tendency 
in the Greek people for trading, seafaring and ad- 
venture. The impulse of enterprise and daring that 
sent out the Argonauts and various colonies from 
ancient Greece to distant lands drove the modern 
Greek to America and the uttermost parts of the 
world. 

2. Economic. — The Argonauts went to fetch the 
golden fleece from Colchis in Caucasus. So the 
Greek immigrants came to America in search of 
gold. Economic condition constitutes the main cause 
of Greek emigration, both from Greece and Turkey. 
Greece was poor and limited in opportunities for 
wider enterprises. The failure in crops and currants 
in 1891 drove many to America in search of work 
and opportunities for improvement in living. The 
naturally enterprising Greek finds better outlets for 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 39 

his love of adventure and enterprise in the United 
States and generally he succeeds. 

3. Success of the immigrants in America. — ^Fur- 
ther cause of emigration is the effect of the letters 
written and the money sent by the immigrants in 
America to their homes in Greece and Turkey. The 
reports of their success spread in exaggerated form, 
as if people could sweep up gold in the streets or 
pick it up anywhere, and the reports drew others, 
relatives, friends, enemies and all. Gradually it be- 
came a fashion to go to America. Besides people 
made comparison of wages and value. Sums of 
money comparatively insignificant in the United 
States seemed very substantial in Greece. They 
could not take into consideration the relative values 
and the difference of the circumstances in Greece 
and America. 

4. Military service in Turkey. — As to Greek emi- 
gration from Turkey, we might mention as a further 
cause the Turkish military service. Up to the 
declaration of the Turkish revolution in 1908, Chris- 
tians and Jews were exempted from military service. 
Every male paid a tax of $1.60 a year from birth to 
death. With the declaration of so-called equality 
between the Moslems and non-Moslems, Christians 
were admitted into the army. But experience 
showed that it meant really the enslavement and 
moral and physical ruin of Christian youth. The 
whole Turkish constitution was a camouflage to en- 
force the Turkish Nationalist program to Turkify the 
non-Turkish elements by assimilating them through 
Islam, or eliminating them through military en- 
slavement, hardships and purposeful neglect of the 
health of the soldiers. To escape such treatment, 
many Christian youths left Turkey. Young men 
from the shores of the Black Sea, Trebizond, Ordu, 
Fatsa, Kerasunde, Samsun, as well as the hinter- 
land, Karahissar, Sivas, Kaisseri, Angora, Konia, 



40 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

from Smyrna and its hinterland, from Thrace, Adri- 
anople, Kirkkilissa, Constantinople and all over 
Turkey, left the country usually secretly without 
passports. 

Another cause of the emigration from Turkey was 
religious, due to the conflict between Christianity 
and Islam. To accept Islam, would end the troubles 
and persecutions of Christians. Like the persecuted 
Puritans of England, the Huguenots of France, the 
victims of oppression in Germany and other lands, 
the Greek Christian young men sought shelter, 
refuge, and liberty in the ^^Land of the Free and the 
Home of the Brave." 

Peasant and poor emigrants. — At first the emi- 
grants from Greece were from the peasant class, 
mostly illiterate, and poor. Many were of the class 
that had failed at home and wanted to try their for- 
tunes in new lands. They were mostly young men, 
single, or if married, who had left their families in 
the home land. 

Later came better classes. — Gradually more cul- 
tured and educated classes began to go to America. 
Merchants with capital, physicians and lawyers with 
diplomas, capable young men, anxious to enter the 
numerous educational institutions in America, 
rushed to the New World to seek their fortunes. 

Future depends on political conditions. — The 
future of the emigration from Greece and Turkey 
depends on the outcome of the political situation. 
The establishment of a just and liberal government 
will open up the sources of wealth in the country 
and the enterprising will find ample fields at home 
to utilize their energies. 

Still as long as the impulse to adventure and the 
love of enterprise continue living in the bosom of 
the Greeks and while the economic and commercial 
opportunities here continue there will keep coming 
streams of Greek emigrants to the United States. 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 41 

The mimber will depend largely on the political con- 
ditions in the Near East. 
Legislation about emigration from Greece. — The 

rapid growth of emigration from Greece occupied 
the attention of the Greek government for a long- 
time. Whole villages were being emptied of their 
manhood and young manhood, women alone remain- 
ing behind. The Greek government planned to re- 
strict though not to forbid the emigration. Certain 
restrictive measures and cautions were considered 
with a view to protect the emigrants from the snare 
of grasping agents, and also to keep the young for 
work in the homeland. See National Herald, March 
1920. 

American three percent immigration law. — After 
the adoption of the immigration law in March, 1921, 
by the American Congress, according to which, the 
number of immigrants to the United States between 
June 3, 1921 and June 30, 1922 should not exceed 
three percent of the people from any given country 
as shown by the census of 1910, only 3,283 could come 
from Greece. The restrictions include those from 
Thrace, Smyrna and Turkey. The application of 
the law presents many difficulties and works great 
hardship on those fleeing from persecution and op- 
pression, and seeking shelter in the United States, 
as a refuge for the oppressed and downtrodden. 
There should be a special provision for Greek and 
Armenian refugees from the Near East, as a humani- 
tarian feature of the law. 

SOCIAL CONDITIONS 

Greeks' love of wisdom: Education. — Greeks have 
always been fond of wisdom and knowledge, and 
education has taken a prominent place throughout 
their history. Even during the Dark Ages of Greece 
under Turkish rule and oppression, while illiteracy 



42 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

prevailed among the people, the monasteries were 
centers of learning, and patriotic and godly priests 
taught the children elements of learning at night with 
the light of the torch or the candle. 

With the Independence of Greece, conditions 
changed both in Greece and Turkey. Since the mid- 
dle of the 19th century, there has been great progress 
in education. The educational system of Greece is 
very complete. There are three grades of schools, 
the demotic or primary national schools, the Hellenic 
or secondary grammar schools, and the gymnasia in 
which the range and the level of teaching are much 
the same as in a German gymnasium or in the upper 
grades of the American public schools. In all three 
grades education is gratuitous and in the primary 
schools is compulsory on children between ^ve and 
twelve. Every village has its demotic or primary 
school, and all the prominent cities their gymnasia. 
The university at Athens is attended by nearly 3,500 
students many of whom came before the World War 
from Turkey. The medical and law students pre- 
dominate with the result that the number of politi- 
cians and office-hunters grows whereas the country 
needs more men in practical and scientific lines of 
work. There are also the Polytechnic Institute, two 
agricultural schools, a military academy, several 
naval schools, besides many private schools for busi- 
ness training. There is also a Normal school (Didas- 
caleion) to train teachers for primary schools. 

Education of girls. — The girls take the same 
courses of study in the girls' schools. The highest 
institution of learning for girls in Greece is Arsa- 
keion, a girls' college or high school with normal 
training courses. The university is now open to 
women, and a good many are taking courses in medi- 
cine, science, and arts. 

Education among the Greeks in Turkey. — One of 
the privileges granted by the Sultan to the Greek 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 4S 

Patriarchate regarded the matter of schools and 
education. The Greeks kept their schools under 
their own control with programs of their own mak- 
ing. They contributed liberally for schools and their 
upkeep. The Turkish government supplied schools 
for the Turks and Moslems, taxing the Christians 
also with an education tax. The most prominent 
building in many villages and towns is the Greek 
school built by private contribution or by some pa- 
triotic Greek, as a tribute of love to his native place. 

System of instruction. — The system of instruction 
is similar to those in Greece. Prominence is given 
both in Greece and Turkey to languages — especially 
to Greek. Mathematics, history, and geography re- 
ceive proper attention. Instruction in scientific sub- 
jects needs much improvement. Memorizing is very 
prominent at the expense of originality of thought. 

The following table show^s the number of Greeks, 
schools and pupils in Thrace and Asia Minor : 

GREEKS 

Vilayet of Adrianople 366,363 

" " Constantinople 364,459 

" " Brusa 278,421 

" " Sivas 99,376 

" " Koniah 87,021 

" " Angora 45,873 

" " Kastamuni i24,919 

" " Trebizond 353,533 

" " Adana 70,000 

" " Smyrna 622,810 

Independent Governments 105,964 

Dodecanese 102,727 

Imbros, Tenedos and Kastelorizo 

Islands 21,877 



SCHOOLS 


PUPILS 


562 


42,890 


237 


29,929 


211 


25,515 


285 


10,805 


93 


10,471 


75 


4,425 


32 


2,366 


754 


37,195 


405 


56,525 


138 


10,346 


128 


10,285 


15 


837 


1,735 


243,424 



Totals 2,543,343 



Religious instruction. — ^Eeligious instruction con- 
stitutes a part of the curriculum in all Greek schools, 
and is obligatory. It consists of the teaching of 
Sacred History (Hiera Historia), the story of the 



44. THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Old and New Testaments in graded courses for lower 
and higher classes, the Catechism in elementary and 
advanced courses, including an exposition of the 
Nicene Creed, the Decalogue, the Beatitudes, and the 
Sacraments. Symbolics is given usually as a sepa- 
rate course. The text of Scripture is not studied 
much, excepting the quotations in history and cate- 
chism books. Whole passages are given in readers 
as part of the language study. The New Testament 
is studied as part of the religious course in gym- 
nasia, i 

Advanced schools. — Constantinople, and Smyrna,' 
have advanced schools in academic courses, both for 
boys and girls. Gymnasia exist in many prominent 
cities in Thrace, Asia Minor, and the islands, e.g. 
Adrianople, Trebizond, and Samsun. Even in 
Zindji Dere, near Caesarea, Cappadocia, in the heart 
of Asiatic Turkey, there is a Greek gymnasium. 
Zappeion is the highest school for girls in Constan- 
tinople, erected through the munificence of Zappas, 
a rich Greek from Epirus. 

American schools. — Greeks have lately taken ad- 
vantage of the American schools in the Near East, 
although at first they were very reticent and suspi- 
cious about them. The majority of students in 
Eobert College, Constantinople, and International 
College, Smyrna, are Greeks. The same was true of 
Anatolia College, Marsovan, until the deportations 
of 1915 overthrew it. It started after the armistice, 
operating only the preparatory department, but it 
was closed again, March, 1921 by the Nationalist 
Turks. 

French schools. — Large numbers of Greeks at- 
tended the French schools in Turkey conducted by 
the Jesuits, Franciscans, and other orders of the 
Roman Catholic Church. The French schools gave 
a practical knowledge of the French language, with 
an outward polish of manners, but without really 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 45 

training the mind. The American institutions aimed 
in developing true manhood and womanhood, teach- 
ing the students to think and judge for themselves. 

Housing in towns. — There are great differences 
as to housing, both in Greece and Turkey. In large 
cities there are houses with dining, sitting and sleep- 
ing rooms, modern kitchens, and sanitary arrange- 
ments. At present, certain cities, especially Con- 
stantinople, Smyrna, Athens, Salonica, etc., are ex- 
tremely overcrowded, so that it is a serious question 
to find accommodations in them, for newcomers. In 
normal times, people are properly housed. Bed- 
steads are in common use in Greece and in many 
parts of Turkey. 

In the interior. — ^In the interior of Turkey in 
towns as well as villages, the same room often serves 
as dining, sitting and sleeping room. The floor is 
covered with carpets or rugs. There are divans or 
sofas with cushions, and chairs are being introduced 
more and more. At meals the table-cloth is spread 
first, then the wooden table upon it, or a large copper 
tray on a framework. People sit on the ground 
with the edge of the table cloth on their laps, and 
ordinarily all dip their spoons or forks in the same 
dish. At night beds are spread on the divans or the 
floor, and in the daytime they are kept piled up in 
wardrobes. In some villages the home is simply a 
hut consisting of one or two rooms; the fire place 
serving for the kitchen as well. Of course palatial 
buildings are not rare even in small places. ^ 

Sanitation. — Sanitary arrangements are in need 
of great improvement. Throughout the East, the 
streets are narrow and crooked and the houses too 
much crowded, with no parks or public squares. 
Still people in general live outdoors, and have plenty 
of fresh air and sunlight. The climate, too, is very 
favorable and conducive to health. Stagnant waters 
cause malaria in many places. 



46 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

EECREATION 

Recreation neglected. — ^People do not think much 
of recreation in the Near East. They take life 
easily, working with leisure. Men are busy with 
their work in stores and offices, and women with 
household work, knitting and sewing. The most 
prevalent mode of recreation in Greece and Turkey 
is sitting in groups in houses or at the coffee houses 
talking, discussing politics and sipping Turkish 
coffee. 

Games. — Gossip is a great source of pleasure. On 
Sundays and holidays people make calls, and talk. 
Card playing and other games like dominoes, chess, 
and trictrac are inseparable from the coffee houses. 
Billiards and pool-rooms are common in large cities. 
Cards and other games are frequently played in 
family circles. Gambling is very common, though 
often played for moderate and trifling sums. The 
law forbids gambling but ways are easily found to 
evade it. 

Athletics. — Athletics in the open air or gymnas- 
tics are not prevalent. Children have their games 
and plays, especially those with balls. But the 
grown-up people think games are for children. The 
young are very fond of athletics and many of them 
belong to athletic societies in Athens, Constanti- 
nople, and Smyrna, doing excellent work in pro- 
moting athletics. Unfortunately such work is lim- 
ited to a few centers only. Athens has a large mar- 
ble stadium seating 75,000 where Olympic, Pan- 
Hellenic and school games are held, all of which tend 
to promote love of sports and athletics. Tennis is 
being introduced in centers like Athens, Smyrna and 
Constantinople. Greeks everywhere need to learn 
the Anglo-Saxon and American love of games and 
exercise in the open air. 

Societies. — ^Literary and musical societies play an 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND ^7 

important part in Greek communities in promoting 
culture among the people. Thus the Society Parnas- 
sos, Athens, the Greek Literary Society in Constan- 
tinople, and other similar organizations in other 
cities, conduct courses of lectures and public meet- 
ings that are very instructive and beneficial. 

Newspapers. — Newspapers play a very important 
role in Greek life. Athens alone has 33 dailies, be- 
sides many weeklies and monthlies, and other pe- 
riodicals. Almost every town in Greece has its local 
paper. A great number of Greek dailies and pe- 
riodicals are issued in Constantinople, Smyrna, and 
other important centers in Turkey. Greeks are fond 
of news and devour the newspapers. Coifee-houses 
are almost all the time full of people sipping coffee, 
reading newspapers and discussing the news enthu- 
siastically. 

Theaters. — There are numerous theaters in 
Athens, Smyrna and Constantinople, and Greeks 
patronize the plays very much. In many other cen- 
ters both in Greece and Turkey dramatic perform- 
ances are presented, even when there is no proper 
theater. Amateurs and students make such presen- 
tations. Moving pictures are very prevalent and 
are spreading rapidly. Every village and town in 
Greece has its karagenze — a show similar to Punch, 
and Judy. 

MOEAL STANDARDS 

Greeks temperate. — Greeks are generally tem- 
perate and sober. Wine is commonly used at meals 
in families and restaurants, and is offered at all so- 
cial and family gatherings, and coffee houses, in ad- 
dition to tea, coffee and pastry, can provide liquors. 
Even small groceries have tables where people can 
have drink and refreshments. But everywhere mod- 
eration is the rule. Though some may go to excess 



48 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

sometimes, still it is remarkable that there is so lit- 
tle drunkenness. 

Moral life. — The moral life of the people is in 
general pure, though there is much difference be- 
tween the sea-coast and the interior, or the large 
cities and the country places. The populous centers 
are more lax than the interior. 

Family life is everywhere respected, kept pure, 
and blessed with children. Only in places where wes- 
tern ways are introduced, the number of children 
diminishes. The so-called European or a-la-Franca 
customs are often corrupting influences in the Near 
East. 

Outside of large centers divorce is almost un- 
known, and everywhere is looked down upon and dis- 
couraged. 

Unfortunately the double standard prevails among 
the Greeks as to sex morality. Women are closely 
guarded and strict morality is required of them. As 
to young men, it is taken for granted that they will 
sow their wild oats and cannot be expected to be 
very strict. 

Influence of the war. — The morals of the people 
were greatly undermined during the World War, 
especially in large cities and army centers. All good 
people bemoan the prevailing immorality in society 
in Constantinople, Athens, Salonica, etc. 

There is much work for the moral refoimers in 
large cities. In most of them, there are houses of 
ill-fame under legal control and protection, but al- 
ways condemned in respectable circles, as places of 
evil and corruption, but regarded by public opinion 
as a necessary evil. 

Dowries. — Unfortunately the custom of dowries 
prevails in Greek Society. Brothers often remain 
single, or postpone their marriage in order to pro- 
vide dowry for their sisters. In fact it is customary 
for brothers not to marry while the sisters remain 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 49 

unmarried. Young women spend most of their time 
in preparing their trousseaus. It is only in recent 
years that young women began to help in office work 
and feel somewhat independent. 

Laxity in truthfulness. — In general, people be- 
lieve that honesty is the best policy, but lies and 
equivocations are very common. While in the mat- 
ter of sex relations the Greeks stand pretty high, in 
comparison with many other nations, they are more 
lax in the matter of truthfulness. 

How developed. — Centuries of oppression and 
persecution developed in Greeks as also in other 
Near East people, a tendency to cover the truth, and 
to resort to disguises and subterfuges and even di- 
rect lico as a means of self-defense and protection. 
Often pursued by the enemy and hunted down by the 
Turks, their tyrants. Christians have saved their 
lives or the honor of their families through craft, 
tricks or even deceptions. It is not strange that 
people brought up under such circumstances do not 
feel the same conscientious scruples against false- 
hood as those who are brought up under the influ- 
ences of Christian principles and free institutions. 

Attachment to relatives. — Greeks are strongly at- 
tached to their families and relatives. Family life 
in many parts, especially in Turkish sections, is of 
the patriarchal type. It comprises father, mother 
and the children, and as the sons grow up they bring 
their brides to the paternal home, where the mother 
rules and all daughters-in-law obey her. But it is ai 
growing custom for married couples to open their 
own homes separately, especially in cities. 

In certain sections, especially the Peloponnesus, 
there is clannishness, and quarrels are not rare 
among different clans. The effect of this is often 
seen in politics. The various parties consist of the 
followers of certain heads of prominent families or 
clans. 



50 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Greeks are very neighborly and helpful to each 
other, especially in small places. Neighbors visit 
and help one another. ^'A good neighbor is closer 
than a brother," says a Greek proverb. *'In select- 
ing a house consider first the neighbors,'' says an- 
other. 

Are democratic. — Greeks are very democratic. 
There is no aristocracy or rank or class distinc- 
tion among them. As industries are not developed 
there is no capitalist and labor question. Everyone 
can, and prefers, to have his own trade and hold 
property. Thus there are small traders and mer- 
chants everywhere. Individualism, that character- 
izes the race, hinders the formation of trusts or large 
organizations, and also of Communism. The Greeks 
are never Bolshevists. 

Socialists. — There is a small Socialist party dis- 
cussing questions of capital and labor, but it is con- 
fined almost wholly to Athens and Piraeus. There 
are also clubs and other organizations of clerks and 
various tradesmen. 

All patriotic. — Greeks are nationalists. The love 
of country and nation outranks every other feeling. 
Indeed, it is more than religion to them. The words 
that Plato makes Socrates say in Crito — ^^Patris, 
the fatherland, is dearer than father and mother," — 
are believed in and practiced, even to-day. The con- 
sciousness of national unity of the whole Greek 
race unites all Greeks together. Wherever they live, 
they all cherish love and devotion to Hellas, the 
mother country. 

Help old country. — Greeks in the United States 
help their home folks in every way, especially finan- 
cially. They help their village or town, providing 
for their needs in church and school matters; they 
build and repair the bridge in the village ; open up a 
new well, or build a water course and reservoir. The 
Greek society, *'Kozani," in New York is collecting 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 61 

funds to build public baths in their native town 
Kozani, Macedonia. The Icarian Society has plans 
for a gymnasium or high school in their native 
island, Icaria ; others raise funds for a belfry or a 
new bell to their church at home. 

Athens is the capital of Hellenism. Greeks who 
amass wealth in Egypt, Africa, India, England, 
France, or Rumania, remember in their wills the 
various national, educational and philanthropic in- 
stitutions of Athens. Thus Averof, Arsakes, Sinas, 
Varvakis, Syngros, Zappas are a few out of the host 
of patriots who have contributed munificently for 
the adornment of Athens with public buildings. 

Greeks have never been strong in internationalism, 
though not lacking in idealism. The ancient Greeks 
had the Amphictyonic Council, Plato had his vision 
of the World Republic, Venizelos believed in the 
Balkan League and endeavored to preserve it even 
with the sacrifice of Greek interests. He also 
strongly supported the League of Nations at the 
Paris Peace Conference. 

Though strongly nationalistic, the Greeks desire 
to live amicably with other nations and would gladly 
do their part in promoting the welfare of the world 
and cultivating peace and good will among the na- 
tions. 

Language question. — The Greek language con- 
tinues as a living memorial. It was never dead, nor 
ceased being spoken. It underwent many changes 
in modification, accretions, growth and development. 

Greek language living. — There are stages in the 
process of these changes, and we have the Homeric, 
Attic, Alexandrian, Byzantine and modern periods. 
In the course of time there crept in many foreign 
words and expressions, especially from the Italian, 
French and Turkish, which have become part of the 
language as spoken by the people to-day. Besides 
there are many local differences in Athens, Crete, 



52 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Cyprus, Pontus, etc., wliich may be regarded as 
dialects. 

There is, however, uniformity or a common 
standard in the written style or language, which is 
respected by literary Greeks everywhere. 

Two schools. — There are two schools at present 
in regard to literary form in modern Greek. 1. The 
purists who aim at purging the modern Greek of all 
foreign accretions in words and phrases and desire 
to conform it as much as possible to the ancient or 
Attic Dialect, as represented by Xenophon or the 
Church Fathers. The grammar is the same as the 
Attic, only simplified, and many words and phrases 
are to be added to meet modern needs and ideas. 

2. The demotists, who advocate that the spoken 
Greek, should be the medium of expression in all lit- 
erary style, in society, courts, schools, church and 
everywhere. People, they hold, should write as they 
speak. A strong conflict is going on between the 
two schools. It is not simply a dispute about dic- 
tion; grammatical forms also, are involved in the 
discussion. The purist condemns the demotic as 
barbaric. The supporters of the demotic regard the 
purist style as artificial, crude and doomed to die. 

The spoken style has already won the field in fic- 
tion, poetry and stories, whereas history, science, 
philosophy, law and theology cling to the purist 
style. The newspapers are divided, but almost all 
use both styles according to the subject matter. The 
editorials are usually in the purist style. 

Strangely most of the newspapers in America pre- 
fer the purist. 

Language has a great bearing on the education, 
training and development of the young. The chil- 
dren use the demotic at home, as do the parents, how- 
ever cultured and educated they may be. But as 
soon as a child goes to school the purist comes in 
with the big words and phrases, even in the primary. 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 53 

The government of Venizelos made the great re- 
form that the demotic is to be the medium of instruc- 
tion in primary education. Higher courses are to 
be given in the purist style. 

The matter of dual language is a great hindrance 
and handicap in the mental growth and development 
of the people of Greece. The conflict has important 
bearing, too, on church and religious matters. 

LEADERSHIP 

Need of leaders. — Leadership is the greatest need 
among the Greeks. Unfortunately there are too 
many leaders. All aspire to leadership, none want 
to be led. Factiousness, division and disputations 
have been among the chief weaknesses of the Greek 
people. ** Where there are four Greeks, there are 
^ve captains or leaders,'' says a proverb. 

Sources of leadership. — ^Happily there has been 
no lack of good leaders at all the stages of Greek 
history. At present the University of Athens sup- 
plies the principal leaders. Graduates from its vari- 
ous departments, especially the law school, are the 
main leaders. Greece is a land of lawyers and from 
among them have come her chief politicians. Thus 
the latest great leader of Greece, Venizelos himself, 
is a graduate of the law school, and was a lawyer in 
Crete. 

Members of Parliament have great influence and 
play an important role in the national life. Every 
Bouleutis (M. P.) was at times a dictator in his 
own sphere of influence. The press is an immense 
power, as Greeks are great readers, consequently 
they are led and misled through the press. 

Leaders in Turkey. — Among the Greeks in Turkey 
the clergy play a far greater part, as the Patriarchs 
and the Bishops, or Metropolitans, are national as 
well as religious leaders. Teachers also are of great 



54 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

influence. In many villages the only man able to 
read and address the people is the teacher. He may 
be of greater force than the priest. Physicians play 
an important role as leaders in all community af- 
fairs because they are educated and far in advance 
of the people among whom they practice. 

Merchants and prominent business men are potent 
forces in all communities, both in Grreece and 
Turkey. 

RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 

The Greeks almost all belong to the Greek Church, 
called also Greek Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox 
Church. It is often mistakenly called by Americans 
Greek Catholic. The church of this name or 
*^Uniate'' is a wholly different denomination, com- 
prising no Greeks, but Kuthenians, Slovaks, Eu- 
manians, Syrians, and a few others, who keep the 
Eastern Orthodox rites and customs, but have come 
under the authority of the Pope of Eome. 

Greek Church. — The Greek or Eastern Orthodox 
Church is the church of Eussia, Serbia, Eumania, 
Montenegro, Bulgaria (though considered schis- 
matic), as well as of Greece, and the Greeks in the 
whole of Turkey, including Egypt, and those scat- 
tered in other countries and part of the Syrians and 
Albanians. 

All the various national churches have the same 
doctrine, practice and liturgy. Each national church 
is autocephalus, i. e., independent and self-govern- 
ing, administered by a Holy Synod consisting of 
bishops, the president being called Metropolitan, in 
some cases patriarch. Thus the church in Greece 
is governed by a synod of bishops with the Metro- 
politan or Archbishop of Athens as its president. 

Patriarchates. — There are four historic patri- 
archates of the Eastern Orthodox Church, compris- 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 55 

ing tlie territories in what was once Turkey i. e. 
Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. 
They are of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and 
Alexandria. The Patriarchate of Constantinople is 
also called ecumenical and is the highest authority 
in the entire Greek Church comprising all the vari- 
ous national churches. It was and is still the great 
rival of papacy. Yet the patriarch makes no such 
pretentious claims as the Pope. 

State church in Greece. — The Greek Church is the 
state church in Greece and though independent in 
doctrinal matters, it is practically under the Min- 
istry of Ecclesiastical affairs and Education, and a 
representative of the King sits at the sessions of the 
Holy Synod. 

Greeks in the early church. — The history of the 
Greek Church is really the story of Christianity in 
the Near East. The Greeks were among the very 
first to accept the Christian religion. Churches were 
organized among them by Paul and other apostles. 
The preachers, missionaries, and theologians in the 
early church were largely Greeks. The New Testa- 
ment was written in Greek. The Greek Fathers were 
the leaders of thought, administrators of the 
churches and formulators of Christian doctrine. 

Doctrinal standards. — The leading personalities 
in the early councils that formulated the doctrines 
of God as the Holy Trinity, and of the person of 
Jesus Christ, were Greeks, as Athanasius, Origen, 
Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Naz- 
ianzus, Chrysostom and many others. In fact, even 
to-day the Greek Church is based upon the doctrines 
formulated by the early ecumenical councils. The 
first six, 325-687 A.D., dealt with the dogmas of the 
Trinity and the Person of Christ, and the seventh 
with the image controversy. The Nicene Creed, for- 
mulated at the First Ecumenical Council, 325 A.D., 
and completed at the second, A.D. 381, is the basis 



56 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

of its theology, and is recited daily at the Liturgy 
or Eucharist and other services. The candidate for 
baptism or the godfather recites it before baptism. 
St. John Chrysostom is even to-day the main au- 
thority in the exegesis or interpretation of Scrip- 
ture and John of Damascus in Systematic Theology. 

The Greek Church claims to be *^holy, catholic, 
and apostolic.'' But the characteristic adjective 
she particularly and emphatically appropriates for 
herself is ^'Orthodox." She claims to have pre- 
served the teaching of Christ and the Apostles as 
in the early church in all its purity and integrity. 
In all the essentials of Christian doctrine the Greek 
Church, in its official teaching, is Orthodox and con- 
servative compared with many another denomina- 
tion. Thus, in regard to the doctrines of God, the 
Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, redemption, 
and eternal life, she holds the most orthodox posi- 
tion. 

There is no Pope, no papal supremacy, nor infalli- 
bility, no doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. 

Tradition is regarded as a source of revelation 
along with the Scriptures and the work of the Holy 
Spirit in the church. 

There is no doctrine of purgatory, but prayers are 
said for the dead. There is no doctrine of penances 
nor indulgences, though pilgrims to Jerusalem can 
buy papers of absolution from their sins. There 
are three orders of ministry, bishop, presbyter or 
priest, and deacon. The bishops of the prominent 
cities are called archbishops or metropolitans. The 
Archbishops of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem 
and Alexandria are called patriarchs. Archiman- 
drite is the title of the monastic clergy of the rank 
of presbyter. Bishops and monks alone must be 
celibate; the rest of the clergy can marry. 

Sacraments. — The Greek Church is strongly ritu- 
alistic and great prominence is given to ceremonial- 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 57 

ism. There are seven sacraments: baptism, confir- 
mation or anointing with sacred oil or chrism, eucha- 
rist, confession, orders, marriage, and unction. 
There is infant baptism by immersion and infant 
confirmation and communion. Communion is par- 
taken in both elements by the laity. (The church 
teaches transubstantiation.) Marriage is a sacra- 
ment and is dissolved only through infidelity: 
though the canon law allows certain other grounds 
for divorce. Unction is not confined to the deathbed ; 
it can be had before every communion ; and in time of 
sickness or at any other time. 

Separated churches. — Partly for political reasons 
and partly as a result of doctrinal controversies par- 
ticularly on the person of Christ there split off about 
the 5th century some of the old historical oriental 
churches. Thus the Nestorian controversy, 431 A.D., 
concerning the relation of the human and the divine 
in Christ, resulted in the separation of the Nestorian 
Church which doctrine tended to split the person 
of Jesus in two. The opposite view, called Monoph- 
ysitism, taught the fusion of the human and Di- 
vine into one nature. As a result of the controversy 
on this doctrine the Armenian, called the Gregorian 
church, the Coptic Church in Egypt and the Jacobite 
in Syria were separated. Though these churches 
theoretically cling to certain old formulae, essentially 
and in reality they hold the same Christology as the 
rest of the Orthodox Churches. The Monothelite 
controversy concerning the nature of the will in 
Christ as human and divine was settled in the Sixth 
Ecumenical Council, A.D. 680. It only lingered on 
among the Maronites of Lebanon till they came un- 
der the sway of the papacy. 

Filioque. — The controversy regarding the relation 
of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son in the 
Holy Trinity is known as the filioque controversy 
from the addition of filioque (''and from the Son"), 



58 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

into the Nicene Creed by the Latin or the Western 
Church. It is a most difficult, mysterious, metaphys- 
ical topic involving the study and investigation of 
the divine psychology and the interrelation of the 
powers and faculties constituting the divine nature, 
or Deity. And yet the students in Greek high 
schools and gymnasia are taught them in their cate- 
chetical or religious lessons, and Greeks in general 
discuss the flioque controversy with interest. It is 
doubtful if many cultured Europeans or Americans 
would pay any attention to it nowadays. The con- 
troversy ultimately resulted in the split of the 
church into two (A.D. 1054), the Eastern, or Byzan- 
tine, and the Western or Koman. An important 
contributing cause of the great schism was the re- 
jection of the pretensions of the papacy over the 
Eastern Church. Catholicity is also claimed by the 
Greek Church. 

Image controversy. — The Seventh Ecumenical 
Council (787 A.D.) dealt with the Image Contro- 
versy which shook the church severely for more than 
a century. When the persecutions in the early Ro- 
man Empire ceased (313 A.D.) and Constantine the 
Great established Christianity as a state religion, 
the doors were widely opened to all, and many con- 
formed to the rites and ceremonies of the church, 
outwardly, without a real conversion. Again when 
emperors like Theodosius the Great persecuted the 
heathen, a great many joined the church formally 
while retaining their old practices and superstitions. 
Thus the world entered the church. 

Greek ideas and rites.— Besides the Greek ideas, 
philosophy, rhetoric, drama, the old mysteries and 
other rites of the ancient Hellenic religion greatly 
influenced the Christian religion in the formulation 
and development of its doctrines and practice. (See 
Hatch.) 

Archbishop Meletios Metaxakis, late Metropolitan 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 59 

of Athens, while on a visit to the United States in 
1918, at the dinner given in his honor by the Clergy 
Club of New York, said, ^^What was best in the old 
Greek mysteries and theater was assimilated and 
retained by the Greek Church." 

Greek Puritans. — Thus under various influences 
such elements and practices entered the church that 
a section in^he seventh century objected and remon- 
strated. We might say the Puritans in the Greek 
Church started the fight against ritualism and cere- 
monialism as well as the icons and such practices 
as the mediation of the saints and worship of Virgin 
Mary and angels. These were doubtless the forerun- 
ners of the Reformation in the 16th century as Pro- 
fessor Paparregopoulas of Athens University ex- 
plained in his History of Greece. 

Their later influence. — Under the influence of 
women and monks, the reform movement was 
checked and the Greeks were prevented from doing 
what was later accomplished by the Reformation. 
It did not, however, die out entirely, as its traces 
continued among the Catharists in Armenia, the 
Bogomeles, in Bulgaria, and its doctrines and in- 
fluences were carried through merchants to France, 
which resulted in the movement of the Albigenses. 

In spite of the suppression of the Reform Party, 
Constantinople continued to be the seat of learning, 
and Greek literature, philosophy and theology were 
expounded there throughout the medieval period 
until the fall of Constantinople (1453). Though no 
great men of the rank of the ancient writers, philos- 
ophers or theologians appeared during this period, 
still there were prominent men able to teach and 
expound all the Greek authors. Upon the fall of 
Constantinople, the leading, learned Greeks escaped 
to Europe and carried the knowledge of the Greek 
art and language, thus starting the Renaissance. 

Turkish conquests. — ^When the Reformation be- 



60 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

gan in Germany (1517) the Greek Church had been 
plunged into its era of slavery. 

Cyril Lucaris. — ^Attempts were made in the 16tli 
century to bring about an understanding between 
the Greek church or patriarchate at Constantinople, 
and the reformers. Cyril Lucaris, Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, is the leading personage in this matter. 
He studied in Switzerland and was taught Calvinis- 
tic Theology and was in sympathy with the Refor- 
mation. He presented the Alexandrian manuscript 
of the New Testament to Charles I of England, and 
it is now in the British Museum and is known as 
M.S. A. He was elected to the patriarchate eight 
times between 1612 and 1638. He was not allowed, 
however, to carry out any comprehensive reform 
movement, as through the machinations of the 
Jesuits, he was strangled and his body was dragged 
through the streets by the Jews. There is a creed 
with the name of Cyril, although some without suffi- 
cient ground doubted its genuineness. His attitude 
to all the Reformation doctrines was sympathetic. 
The attitude of the Greek Church towards the re- 
form or Protestant positions was discussed and 
formulated in a Council of the Patriarchs at Jerusa- 
lem, 1672 A.D., and was given summarily in its de- 
cisions. The same can be seen in the Confession 
of Faith by Dositheos, Patriarch of Jerusalem. See 
Schaff's Creeds and Confessions of Christendom. 

Greek and Anglican Churches. — The Anglican 
Church has approached, more than once, the patri- 
archate at Constantinople for the union of the two 
churches. The Greeks have always been friendly 
and sympathetic to the Anglicans, but they would 
not make any doctrinal concessions for the sake of 
union. They would simply welcome the Anglicans, 
if they wanted to unite with the Greek Church. The 
utmost cordiality and a feeling of mutual apprecia- 
tion prevails between the Church of England and 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 61 

the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United 
States on the one hand, and the Greek Orthodox 
Church on the other. 

Dark Ages of Greece. — The Dark Ages of the 
Greeks and the Greek Church began with Turkish 
rule and oppression. Many regard this period, from 
the 15th century to the 19th, as that of decadence, 
and they blame the Greek Church for lack of vitality, 
activity, and spirituality. It is true there were great 
defects and want of spirituality among many of the 
leaders. There was no aggressive missionary work; 
the clergy were uneducated and the people illiterate. 
The church had been losing ground or at the utmost 
it endeavored to hold its own. When, however, we 
consider the unparalleled trials which the church 
passed through during these long centuries of op- 
pression and persecution, it is really to be wondered 
at that the Christian name survived at all. The 
whole Christian Church might have been wiped out 
throughout the Turkish Empire as it was in North 
Africa. The Greek and Armenian horrors during 
1915-1921 at the hands of the Young Turks demon- 
strate that the Turks might have annihilated all the 
Christians, but happily they have not succeeded. 

Privileges of the patriarchate. — Certain arrange- 
ments have helped the preservation and continuance 
of the Christian name and religion. Mohammed II, 
the conqueror of Constantinople, A.D. 1453, gave the 
Greek patriarch certain privileges that enhanced the 
authority of the church and helped preserve the in- 
tegrity and safety of the Greeks and all the other 
non-Moslem races, the same privileges were later 
extended to Armenians, Jews, and others. Through 
such privileges, the patriarchate has authority and 
control over the clergy, in questions of wills, mar- 
riage, divorce and education. Thus there was estab- 
lished a state within the state. 

This gave a status of double dignity and authority 



62 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

to tlie patriarcli as the liead of the Greek race as 
well as the church. He held a position similar to 
that of the Jewish high priest under the Romans. 

This helped the Greeks to keep their language, 
customs, rites and traditions as a race in the midst 
of trying circumstances. They feel they owe it to 
the influence of their church. Church and race be- 
ing identified, the Greek Church has become the sym- 
bol of nationality in the estimation of the Greek 
people. The threads of religion and nationality are 
so woven that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, 
to separate them. The one cannot be touched with- 
out affecting the other. Many religious observances, 
customs, festivals, usages are rather national affairs. 
The bishop and the priests, like the patriarch, are 
national, as well as religious leaders. In spite of 
the ignorance of many priests at present, the people 
esteem them as they see in them the priest who 
taught the children in cellars at night the Greek 
language, and kept the torch of patriotism burning 
in the darkness of Turkish tyranny. 

Protestant missions to the Greeks. — ^We see the 
above points illustrated in the Protestant mission- 
ary work among the Greeks. Protestant mission- 
aries were sent to the East early in the 19th century 
by Presbyterians and Congregationalists mainly to 
evangelize the Mohammedans and the Jews. The 
doors were closed to the Moslems. No Moslem was 
allowed to profess Christianity openly. Thus the 
missionaries turned their attention to the various 
Christian races or churches, as Greeks, Armenians, 
Syrians, etc., who had all been oppressed under the 
Turk and left in ignorance and darkness through 
want of education. Although they had kept the 
Christian name and customs, they often lacked its 
spiritual and moral influence in their daily life. 

Educational work. — Thus missionaries went to 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 63 

Greece, soon after independence was established, 
and opened schools, published text-books and other 
literature, and were welcomed everywhere. The Hill 
School for girls, founded by Dr. Hill, sent out by the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, continues to the pres- 
ent day to be held in highest esteem as an educa- 
tional center. Eeligious instruction is given by rep- 
resentatives of the Greek Church. 

Controversies. — But other missionaries along 
with the work of education and enlightenment 
started controversies by discussing points of differ- 
ence between Protestants and Orthodox, and a bitter 
opposition was aroused which prejudiced the people 
against the missionaries, except those of the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church, who never attempted to make 
proselytes. 

Jonas King. — Mr. Jonas King, the American 
Board missionary in Greece, took a leading part in 
the controversies both by publication and oral teach- 
ing and discussions. The opposition against him 
was so bitter that he was anathematized by the 
Greek Church and condemned by the government to 
leave Greece. 

M. D. Kalopothakes. — Protestant work in Greece 
was continued by Dr. M. D. Kalopothakes, who 
worked for a time under the Southern Presbyterian 
Board and after 1887 independently. He was a 
fighter and controversialist. He was instrumental 
in organizing the Greek Evangelical Church in 
Athens in 1874, where he preached and taught the 
gospel regularly till his death in 1912. He was 
agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society and 
was instrumental in distributing the Scriptures 
throughout Greece. He founded in 1859 The Star 
of the East, a religious weekly, the oldest paper in 
Greece. Its publication ceased during the war. 
It has been started again recently. He edited the 



64, THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Children's Paper, sl most useful illustrated montlily 
that continued for more than a quarter of a century, 
and stopped for lack of funds, though it had a wide 
circulation. He published many tracts and leaflets, 
mostly translations from English adapted to Greek 
needs, including some important books, such as Out- 
lines of Christian Theology, by A. Hodge; Pilgrim's 
Progress, Catechism, etc. Dr. Kalopothakes con- 
ducted with great success an excellent girls' school 
in Athens, attended by the children of the most 
prominent Greek families. But as the directors 
would not comply with the demand of the Greek 
government under Deliyannis that religious instruc- 
tion in the school be entrusted to a priest of the 
Orthodox Church and the icon of the Virgin Mary 
be put up in the auditorium or chapel, the school 
was closed! 

The Evangelical Church in Greece. — The Evan- 
gelical Church of Greece has now churches or preach- 
ing centers in Athens, Piraeus, Volo (Thessaly), 
Yanina (Epirus), Salonica, Drama, and Serres 
(Macedonia). Owing to lack of workers and funds, 
some of the churches or centers are without settled 
pastors. Systematic work is being done under pas- 
tors in Athens and Salonica, with preaching, Sunday 
school and other services. The Presbyterian sys- 
tem of church government is followed by the 
churches and they constitute the Synod of the Evan- 
gelical Church of Greece. There is a day nursery 
in Salonica for orphans and other poor children, 
under the Evangelical Church, open to all irre- 
spective of creed or race. 

Plymouth Brethren. — The Plymouth Brethren 
have a mission in Athens and hold Sunday and week- 
day meetings. Similarly there is some work in 
Patras. Bible colporteurs visit many centers 
throughout Greece and do very successful work. 

Crete has various centers, especially Canea, 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 65 

where Evangelicals hold meetings. The main leader 
is under Eussellite influence and endeavors to spread 
Eussellite literature and teachings. 

The number of all the Evangelicals or Protestants 
in Greece is only several hundred, and there are but 
a few more Eoman Catholics. Church services of 
the Evangelical or Protestant Greeks are conducted 
in modem Greek, those of the Greek Orthodox, ex- 
cept the sermon, in ancient Greek. The Protestant 
hymn book has a few original hymns, but most of 
them are translations from the English. One of the 
greatest hymn writers and translators was Dr. Elias 
Eiggs of the American Board. He knew 18 lan- 
guages, and Greek was second nature. 

Protestantism in Turkey. — The Protestant work 
in Turkey, mainly among the Greeks and Armenians, 
is under the American Board. A number of Greek 
Evangelical Churches have been established with 
regular Sunday and weekday services, including 
Sunday schools, and in the interior, day schools. 
As the education of the children is left to the re- 
ligious communities, every denomination has to pro- 
vide for the education of the children of its mem- 
bers. But through war and other ravages the whole 
work has been interrupted and in many places de- 
stroyed. There were Greek Evangelical churches 
or preaching centers in Constantinople, Smyrna, 
Manisa, Baindir, Ak-Hissar, in the Smyrna 
region; Ordu, Fatsa, Samsun, Alacham, and a 
number of villages in the Black Sea region; 
Derekioy, Iskili in the Marsovan region; and a few 
other places in the interior of Asia Minor. 

Greek Evangelical Alliance: Dr. George Constan- 
tine. — Many of these churches are members of the 
Greek Evangelical Alliance in Smyrna founded by 
Dr. George Constantine, an eloquent preacher and 
author of a number of standard theological works 
in Greek, a Commentary on the Four Gospels, and 



66 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

a Dictionary of the Bible. The work is now in 
charge of Dr. Xenophon Moschou, who is also the 
author of a Commentary on Galatians, a catechism 
and a number of tracts, hymns and addresses or 
sermons. He has also translated Liddel and Scott's 
Greek Lexicon into modern Greek. 

The number of all the evangelical Greeks in what 
was Turkey was probably several thousand. Many 
young men escaped to the United States owing to 
military oppression and deportation, thus a great 
blow was given to all the newly starting congrega- 
tions. 

Results. — ^ ^ The number of the Evangelical Greeks 
in the world is insignificant and the direct result 
of the whole movement to organize a separate Prot- 
estant body is rather small and discouraging. The 
indirect results, however, have been very great and 
significant. There is a vast number of men and 
women within the Greek Church who are sympa- 
thizers with Evangelical principles and who wish to 
make their church a more up-to-date institution, a 
greater power for spiritual and moral influence in 
the life of the people, but who do not want to be 
called Protestants, or leave their church connection 
and join a separate new denomination. Thus there 
is a strong reform party within the Greek Church, 
and the main or best work of the evangelical Greeks 
has been to stimulate and strengthen it." There 
are leading bishops and other clergymen as well as 
laymen who are planning for reform in the churches. 
Archbishop Meletios Metaxakis, Metropolitan of 
Athens; Bishop Chrysostom of Smyrna; Bishop 
Chrysostom of Philadelphia, and many others are 
of the reform school. 

Among other reasons for the preference of many 
evangelically inclined to remain with the church of 
their fathers is the fear of Greek leaders that to 
weaken the Greek church would mean a blow to 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 67 

Greek nationalism and might endanger the cause 
of Greece, the aspiration to emancipate the Greek 
race from the Turkish yoke. Of course this fear is 
not well founded, as Greek nationality is not coex- 
tensive with Eastern Greek Orthodoxy. There are 
over a hundred million of the Orthodox Church who 
are not Greeks, as Kussians, Serbs, Eumanians, etc., 
and the Protestant Greeks demonstrated repeatedly 
that they are as patriotic and truly Greek as their 
Orthodox brethren and compatriots. 

Religious classification in Turkey. — Still there 
was some ground for this fear in the fact that the 
Turkish Government ignored race distinction and 
classified the people by their denominational or re- 
ligious connections; thus there were Moslems, com- 
prising Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Arabs, Albanians, 
etc., and non-Moslems, comprising the Christians 
and the Jews. The Christians were classified as (1) 
Greeks, comprising all the adherents of the Greek 
Church, Albanian, Bulgarian, Syrian, etc., as well 
as those of the Greek race and speech; (2) Arme- 
nians, race and church membership coinciding; (3) 
Catholics, mostly Armenians, some Greeks, Syrians, 
and Levantines, and (4) Protestants, some Arme- 
nians, some Greeks and Syrians. Now all these 
groups were regarded as distinct nationalities with 
separate patriarchs, as the head of each. The Prot- 
estant chancery was regarded as equivalent to 
other patriarchates and had the same privileges and 
functions. When any one, Armenian, Greek, Syrian, 
becomes Protestant he has to cut off his connection 
from his church and nationality and join the Prot- 
estant nationality. It was something more radical 
and significant than changing denominations in 
America. 

The missionary work in the Near East has been 
in late years mainly educational. Though at first 
the Greeks were averse to missionary institutions. 



68 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

they now form the majority of the student body 
in Robert College, the International College, 
Smyrna, and Anatolia College, Marsovan. They at- 
tend in large numbers the Constantinople College 
for Girls ; St. Paul Institute, Tarsus ; American Ag- 
ricultural School, Salonica; and other American 
schools in the Near East. Many are studying in 
the American University, Beirut, Syria. Similarly 
the American hospitals are much patronized by 
Greeks in the Near East. 

These institutions are rendering a great service 
in building up the character of those who come un- 
der their influence, thus strengthening the reform 
party's wish that the Church may become a more 
efficient spiritual power in the life of the people. 

Reform not doctrinal. — By ** reform, '' however, 
almost all mean certain practical improvements 
rather than any doctrinal changes. As regards doc- 
trine they hold the Greek Church to be Orthodox. 
They want an Erasmian type of reform, such as, 
better educated clergy, shortening of the services, 
better and more edifying preaching, marriage of 
the bishops, diminution of fast days, etc. 

Joakim III, one of the most distinguished Patri- 
archs of Constantinople in recent years, was of the 
reform party. There are various organizations 
whose purpose is to enlighten and educate the people 
in things spiritual and in orthodoxy. Such are 
Anaplasis in Athens, with a periodical of the same 
name; Eusevia (piety) in Smyrna; Anorthosis in 
Constantinople (the young Turks closed it during 
the war), and others in other places, whose program 
is almost the same. 

Apart from Protestant influence, there had been 
certain separatist movements, from the Orthodox 
Church in the 19th century in Greece. Such was 
the Theosophist movement of Kaires, the Society 
of Makrakis and his followers, but they have not 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 69 

bad any lasting effect. Neither at present is there 
any organized separatist movement among the 
Greeks. 

Greeks religious. — No Greek wishes to be re- 
garded as irreligious, whatever be his personal feel- 
ings or convictions al30ut religion. There are many 
educated Greeks who lean to materialism or agnos- 
ticism. 

Inquirers. — The cultured, thinking Greek young 
men are occupied with the same metaphysical and 
philosophical problems and questions as the intelli- 
gent, cultured minds in the American colleges and 
universities. 

Influence of the church. — But there is no formal 
breaking away from the church. All Greeks except- 
ing Eoman Catholics and Protestants are supposed 
to be adherents of the Greek Church. Church con- 
nection with the Greeks is like citizenship in the 
United States. The church takes hold of the in- 
dividual from his birth until his death, and meets 
him at every step. Birth, marriage, burial and 
many other circumstances bring the individual man 
to the church. To be beyond the pale of the church 
is like being outlawed in a civilized country. 

Although the Greek Church is the state religion 
in Greece, other denominations and religions enjoy 
perfect freedom and tolerance though legal stand- 
ing is denied Greek Protestants. 

Eoman Catholics, Moslems, and Jews have every 
protection and freedom to observe their religious 
customs and rites. The Mohammedan imam or 
muezzin calls the people to prayer from the minarets 
in Thessaly, Salonica, etc., as in the days of Turkish 
rule. In fact the government pays the salaries of 
the non-Orthodox clergy as that of the Orthodox 
clergy. 

Greek Protestants restricted. — ^With Protestants 
the situation is somewhat different. The European 



70 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

and American Protestants, e.g., the Lutheran and 
Anglicans, had perfect freedom. But the G-re'ek 
Protestants are looked down upon as unpatriotic 
and sneered at if not openly persecuted. In Piraeus 
a mob attacked the Protestant church and burned 
it in 1888, and Dr. Kalopothakes and others escaped 
lynching or stoning with great difficulty. 

The Greek Protestants have really no legal stand- 
ing. Their marriages are not regarded as legal 
unless performed by a priest of the Orthodox 
Church. It was hoped that the enlightened policy 
of the Liberal government under Venizelos would 
rectify all these inequalities. In fact steps were be- 
ing taken to remedy them before its fall. 

The pastor of the Protestant church at Salonica, 
Eev. A. Mihitsopoulos, and the missionary, Eev. 
Jas. A. Brewster, are authorized to celebrate mar- 
riages by the Greek government as they were under 
the Turkish government. 

The Liberal government invited the American 
missionaries to continue their educational and other 
missionary work in Smyrna and promised to give 
them every facility. The same attitude is kept 
by the present government. In 1918, Venizelos in- 
vited the Trustees of Eobert College to open a sim- 
ilar American College in Athens, the Greek govern- 
ment promising to grant free land to the institution. 

Translation of the N. T. into modern Greek. — 
There is a topic that drew much attention and 
caused much adverse criticism in missionary and 
evangelical circles, i.e., the question of the transla- 
tion of the New Testament into modern Greek. By 
an act of the Holy Synod of Greece, 1901 A.D., the 
translation of the New Testament from the original 
into modern Greek was forbidden. It was the pub- 
lication of a translation of the gospels into demotic 
Greek or ^* slang*' in the Aeropolis, a prominent 
Athenian daily, that aroused the student body in 



EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 71 

the University of Athens with the result that there 
was a riot in the streets with bloodshed. Corrupt 
politicians made political capital out of it. The 
cabinet fell and the Synod put the ban on all trans- 
lations of the N. T. into modern Greek. But the 
whole thing was a linguistic and political question 
rather than religious. The purists feared they 
might lose ground and the sacred language of the 
original New Testament might be desecrated by 
translation. The Synod held that the original New 
Testament Greek was as clear and intelligible to the 
people as any translation, which is not the case. 

Under the Venizelist government the Scriptures 
were circulated in translations in spite of the ban 
still in force. Both the government and the Synod 
were planning to abolish the ban with the first op- 
portunity. The present government is enforcing the 
ban, but there is reason to hope a more liberal pol- 
icy will prevail in the end. Besides the ban is for 
the old kingdom of Greece, and does not apply to 
regions that were once Turkey. 

When Archbishop Meletios Metaxakis visited the 
United States in 1918 he told me he would have no 
objection to the circulation of the Scriptures, but 
welcomed it, and would do the same to transktions. 
He said he would prefer that the Bible societies in 
Britain or America should cooperate with the Holy 
Synod of Greece, helping it to print and circulate 
them with its sanction. He thought the Synod would 
gladly undertake the translation. At the headquar- 
ters of the American Bible Society he reiterated his 
views and wishes in bidding farewell to Dr. W. I. 
Haven, one of the secretaries of the society, before 
he sailed for Constantinople when he was elected 
patriarch. 

There is no doubt the Greek Church does not bar 
the Scriptures or any part of them, as such. 

The Greeks were lukewarm at first, if not actively 



72 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

opposed, even to the Y. M. C. A., associating it with. 
Protestant propaganda work. 

But since they came into touch with its good 
work at the Macedonian front, especially at Salonica, 
the Greek government and the church invited the 
International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. to start 
work among the Greek soldiers, and now there is 
the Greek Y. M. C. A., not only for soldiers but also 
for civilians. The work will grow and extend itself 
in many directions. The Y. M. C. A. men are wel- 
comed everywhere and held in great esteem and their 
work is much appreciated. King Constantino has 
decorated some of the Y. M. C. A. workers in Greece, 
as Venizelos also had done. 

Y. W. C. A.— There has been some Y. W. C. A. 
work in Athens in a limited sphere for years. 
The leaders are anxious that the American or British 
Y. W. C. A. take up the work and develop it. There 
is no doubt the same welcome awaits the Y. W. C. A. 
as that accorded to the Y. M. C. A. in Greece. 



Chapter II 
THE GEEEKS IN AMERICA 

IMMIGRATION" 

Greek immigrants. — Greek immigrants first set- 
tled in the eastern states, especially New York and 
Massachusetts. Gradually they spread to other 
states and now there is scarcely a town in which 
Greeks are not represented. 

Number of Greeks in United States. — ^The esti- 
mate of their number varies between 300,000 and 
500,000. The Massachusetts Bureau of Immigration 
puts the number as 350,000, though Greek estimates 
put it at least as 400,000 and often as many as 500,- 
000. Of these they estimate 45,000 to 50,000 to be in 
Massachusetts. This would make the Greek popula- 
tion of the entire state not far from one-seventh of 
that of the entire country. It has been estimated to 
be also about two-thirds of that in all New England. 

The census of 1920 gives 175,972 foreign-bom 
Greeks in the United States. Adding 20 percent — 
a generous estimate — for children of those bom 
here, gives 211,166 of w^hat the census classifies as 
* ^foreign white stock.'' Of these 38,574 are found 
in New England and 24,122 in Massachusetts. 
Grandchildren of foreign-born are classified as na- 
tive-born Americans. Later reports will verify or 
increase these figures. 

Greek communities. — As soon as a sufficient num- 
ber of Greeks gather in a city, they form a com- 
munity — Greek or Hellenic Orthodox community. 
Each community has its president, vice-president, 
secretary, treasurer and other councillors and all, 

73 



74 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

laymen, thus showing the democratic character of 
the organization. They secure a priest through the 
office of the bishop in New York. With the first op- 
portunity they buy or build a church, usually of 
Byzantine style. If unable to do this, they hire a 
hall or a church. 

According to the list supplied by the office of 
Bishop Alexander Rodostolou, delegate of the Holy 
Synod of Greece in America, there were 134 com- 
munities in the United States and Canada. The 
Greeks have penetrated into the South, and Middle 
West with prominent communities in Ohio, Illinois, 
Indiana, and Missouri. They have gone still further 
into California and Washington with flourishing 
churches in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. 
Usually all Greeks are regarded as members or ad- 
herents of the church where they reside. But as 
the directors of the church are elected by the con- 
tributors, the members given in any list do not cover 
all the Greeks residing in a particular place. 

Greeks scattered in United States. — The Bishops' 
list gave only the places where the Greeks have or- 
ganized communities ; but they are scattered, far and 
wide, in varying numbers into many other places. 
At Christmas, 1919, I sent out some 50,000 appeals 
to the Greek communities, subscribers of certain 
Greek papers, and the customers of a number of 
wholesale Greek merchants in New York, on behalf 
of Greek Relief Work. The answers that came were 
extremely interesting and surprising. In East 
Rapids, Mich., there were only two Greeks and both 
contributed. In other places there were 10, 20, or 
more Greeks. Often an individual or a number of 
them forming a committee collected contributions 
from others, thus there came a list with 50 or more, 
sometimes rising to several hundreds of names. The 
largest communities are in New York City with 25,- 
000, including Brooklyn. They are scattered all over 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 75 

the city and even in the suburbs. Chicago, HI., has 
13,000; Lowell, Mass., 4,500; San Francisco, Cal., 
3,800; St. Louis, 2,500; Boston, Mass., 3,500; Man- 
chester, N. H., 3,500; Akron, 0., 2,300; Philadelphia 
Pa., 2,000; Milwaukee, "Wis., 2,000; Washington 
D. C, 2,000; Seattle, Wash., 1,550; Canton, 0., 2,000 
Pittsburgh, Pa., 1,500; Lynn, Mass., 1,900; Cleveland 
O., 1,800; Gary, Ind., 1,550; Monessen, Pa., 2,000 
Haverhill, Mass., 1,400; Youngstown, 0., 1,500 
Weirton, W. Va., 1,200; Peabody, Mass., 1,450 
Bridgeport, Conn., 1,000; Los Angeles, Cal., 1,150 
Nashua, K H., 1,200; Toledo, 0., 750; Springfield 
Mass., 1,050; Worcester, Mass., 800; Newark, N. J. 
1,150, Oakland, Cal., 1,000; Baltimore, Md., 800 
Portland, Ore., 1,000; Tarpon Springs, Fla., 1,000 
Denver, Col., 850; Buffalo, N. Y., 650; Norfolk, 
Va., 750; cities with 600-700— Eeading, Pa.; Salt 
Lake City, Utah; New Bedford, Mass.; Indianap- 
olis, Ind.; Sioux City, la.; with 400-600— E. Chi- 
cago, Ind.; Omaha, Neb.; Wheeling, W. Va.; 
North Platte, Neb. ; New Brunswick, N. J. ; Syracuse, 
N. Y.; Eochester, N. Y.; Jersey City, N. J.; Ft. 
Wayne, Ind.; New Orleans, La.; Columbus, 0.; Ma- 
son City, la.; Providence, E. I.; Bethlehem, Pa.; 
with 250-400 — New Haven, Conn. ; Hartford, Conn. ; 
Tacoma, Wash.; Pawtucket, E. I.; Dayton, 0.; Lo- 
rain, 0. ; W^arren, 0. ; Kansas City, Kas. ; Stamford, 
Conn. 

Addresses change frequently. — One of the main 
difficulties in finding the number of Greeks in a 
given place is the fact that those working in mills 
and factories move about from place to place accord- 
ing to the work and wages they find. Addresses 
change very frequently. Letters of acknowledg- 
ment sent to the address of the contributor im- 
mediately upon the receipt of his contribution come 
back with the stamp *^ Unknown. '* A contributor 
from Philadelphia goes to Cleveland, Ohio, and is 



76 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

next heard from in Albany or it may be Akron, or 
Canton, Ohio. Even in the same city, especially 
in New York, addresses are changed so frequently 
that it is discouraging to attempt to make a card 
file, with the exception of certain prominent mer- 
chants, professional men and traders, who have per- 
manent addresses. The case of the priests is also 
discouraging, as many are shifted from one charge 
to another or go back to Greece. 

Family groups and men with families. — The early 
immigrants were almost all men, single or married, 
who had left their families behind in their home 
land. But gradually women began to join them, and 
their number has been growing from year to year. 
From 1882 to 1886 503 men and but 45 women en- 
tered and settled in New York. From the annual 
reports of the Commissioner General of Immigra- 
tion for the year ending June 30, 1910-1919, we 
learn that the number of unmarried Greek male 
immigrants from 14 to 44 years of age was 144,827, 
married 71,970, and widowers 403. From 45 years 
and older the numbers were single, 410, married 
6,887, widowers 230. In the same period the num- 
ber of married women 14 to 44 years was 14,126, 
married 10,168, widows 653. From 45 years and 
older the numbers were single 30, married 1,056 and 
widows 881. The single women from 14 to 21 years 
numbered 8,577, 22 to 29 years 4,735, 30 to 37 years 
561, and 38 to 44 years 89. 

It is not far from the truth to say that 20 per 
cent of the Greeks in America have their families 
with them; the rest are either unmarried or have 
left their families in the homeland. The number 
of families has been growing lately, both by mar- 
riages in United States and married men bring- 
ing over their families from Greece or Turkey. 
Men came alone for economic reasons, as sums of 
money insignificant in the United States were of 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 77 

great value and service on the other side. They 
worked in the United States and sent money home. 



BETURN MOVEMENT TO GREECE 

Rush to return. — As soon as the armistice was 
signed (Nov. 11, 1918) there was a rush to return 
to Greece. Many Greeks went back to the Smyrna 
region, Constantinople and even to some parts of 
Thrace and Asia Minor. Many more are waiting 
anxiously for the settlement of conditions in Turkey 
in order to return to their home lands. 

Reasons. — This rush was mainly due to the fact 
that people were barred from visiting their rela- 
tives and friends during the war, as they used to 
do in normal times. This desire to return, however, 
was not in many cases coupled with the intention 
to leave the United States permanently. In fact 
many of those who went back are already returning. 

According to the Greek press, 10 to 20 percent of 
the Greeks in various localities are planning to re- 
turn as soon as conditions in the Near East are, 
settled. 

Some of the estimates sent me from various 
regions are as follows: From Haverhill, Mass., 25 
percent, for family ties; Dayton, Ohio, 5 percent; 
Peabody, Mass., 50 percent, for improved conditions 
in Europe; Washington, D. C, 10 percent to visit 
relatives; Springfield, Mass., 20 per cent; Ansonia, 
Conn., 50 percent, mostly refugees ; Syracuse, N. Y., 
25 percent, mostly for a visit. Eventually most of 
them will come back, bringing others. 

Similar estimates were given by many leaders 
whom I interviewed. Here are one or two typical 
expressions of opinion on this subject: Dr. P. P. 
Nicholas of New York said, ^^All Greeks come to 
America with the intention of returning. They want 
to make money and return as soon as they can man- 



78 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

age it. But they soon get so entangled in business 
and prosper that they cannot leave America even 
if they wished.'' 

By Dr. Theodore Ion: '^The Greek people who 
emigrated to the United States either from free or 
enslaved Greece did not come with the intention of 
making it their permanent home. They come here 
as they go to other parts of the world like Egypt, 
South Africa, South America, Europe, etc. The 
only difference between the Greek immigrants here 
and those in other countries is that they come to 
this country in very large numbers, while Greek 
immigration elsewhere is sparse. Their wish and 
hope is always to return some day to their homes, 
but many of them naturally cannot, and after a visit 
will return and make this country their permanent 
home. They do not come in family groups, and 
sometimes, after years of residence here, send for 
their families, if they have any. Others return to 
Greece, contract marriages there and return to 
America with their wives." 

Dr. S. I. Paul of Springfield, Mass., writes: **Go 
halfway with the Greeks and they will go halfw^ay 
with you. The Americanization of the Greeks, until 
recently, had been superficial, as they had come to 
the United States generally with the idea of making 
money and then returning to their native land. But 
this is no reason for despair, as the very names of 
Boston, New England, New York, etc., indicate that 
the early English in America w^ere reluctant to sep- 
arate themselves from their mother country. Since 
the war, due perhaps to the drafting of many Greeks 
in the service of the United States, there has been 
a marked change in their attitude toward this coun- 
try, coming more and more to regard it ^as their own. 
Proof of this is demonstrated by the fact that many 
Greeks are now buying American realty. 

The prosperous will stay. — Those who are accus- 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 79 

tomed to American ways and ideas with all the rush 
and hustle of life here, with ever-widening fields of 
enterprise and efficiency, cannot rest satisfied with 
the quieter and less active life in the Near East. 
Besides many o^vn houses and other property. 
Some are engaged in real estate enterprises or other 
lines of business. Such will never return. One 
Greek now in real estate business in AVilmington, 
Del., ovms property worth more than $1,000,000 and 
he is only one of a class of prosperous Greeks, some 
of whom started from the very bottom and have 
risen gradually to prosperity. 

Working Greeks will return. — ^It is different with 
w^orkers in mills and factories and those who cannot 
feel at home in America. I asked in 1918 scores of 
Greeks in Syracuse, N. Y., who were from Broosa and 
its villages in Asia Minor, if any planned to return 
home. **A11 of us," they replied. ^^Who would not 
go back to his home and his own? "We are strangers 
in a strange land; we do not know the language 
of the country; neither can we learn it; we are 
working hard like slaves and then our earnings fly 
away from us, everything is so dear. At home we 
have our houses, fields, vineyards, and our relatives 
and friends are all there." 

In general, however, Greeks are well satisfied with 
America. They love and adore it. They intend to 
stay here permanently. They call it *^ Their second 
fatherland. ' ' 

One (in Philadelphia, Pa.) said, ** Every one can 
find what he wants or can do here ; if a man cannot 
find work in this country he can find it nowhere ; this 
is the best country to live in." He came from Tur- 
key a poor, ignorant man. Now he owns a well 
furnished, fine home. His two sons are earning good 
wages. They are all happy and well. His little 
daughter was proud that she was born in America 
and was an American. 



80 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

United States full of comfort. — ^Another — a stu- 
(lent — spoke of the comfort of life, facilities, con- 
veniences, enjoyment land opportunities to grow, and 
then compared them with the monotony, hardships, 
and difficulties on the other side. * ' Steam heat, elec- 
tricity, gas, etc., we cannot have over there,'* he 
emphasized. Another added, **Let us take these 
good things from here over there.'' Eev. Thomas 
J. Lacey of Brooklyn, N. Y., sums up the main points 
regarding the Greek immigrants in a letter thus : 

^'The important things about the Greek immigrant 
to my mind are : 1 — He comes with a great historical, 
literary heritage of which he himself has an appre- 
ciation. The humblest Greek is thrilled with the 
great past of the Hellenic people. 2 — He comes in 
search of economic betterment, hence will be thrifty 
and hard working. He has not known political op- 
pression in his homeland and has never felt antag- 
onism to government; is not prone to foment unrest. 
3 — By natural temper and long racial training in 
democracy, the Greek is adapted to American ideals 
and institutions." 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

With the exception of the few merchants and stu- 
dents, the early comers were poor and illiterate. 
Almost all settled at first in New York. They started 
selling candies, fruits, and flowers from a basket 
hanging around their necks, and wandering through 
the streets. Others went to the interior as work- 
men in railroad building. 

Then came the push-cart, candy-store, and con- 
fectionery. Then retail and wholesale fruit mer- 
chants, florists, etc. 

Enterprising. — The Greeks are thrifty and enter- 
prising. As soon as a Greek saves money enough 
he starts business for himseK. This fact is set forth 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 81 

successfully and pointedly in the Eeport of the Mas- 
sachusetts Bureau of Immigration. 

^* Although many thousands of Greeks in America 
are employed as mill and factory hands and many 
more thousands in railroad construction, in digging 
sewers, and as farm laborers, there is a strong ten- 
dency among the Greeks here, as Prof. Eoss says, 
to take to certain lines of business such as candy- 
kitchens and confectionery-stores, ice-cream parlors, 
fruit-carts, stands, land stores, florist-shops and boot- 
black establishments." 

^^This is due to the fact,'' Prof. Eoss continues, 
**that catering to the minor wants of the public 
admits of being started on the curb with little capital 
and no experience. Once his foot on the first step, 
the saving land commercial minded Greek climbs. 
From curb to stand, from stand to store, from little 
store to big store, to the chain of stores, to branch 
stores in other cities. Such are the stages in his 
upward path." 

They work hard and render satisfactory service 
to the public. There might be given many instances 
of Greeks prospering and making good in these lines, 
in different parts of the United States. I mention 
only one, a prominent fruit dealer in the state of 
New York, who started with a push-cart and now 
owns a chain of stores and is prosperous. 

Restaurants. — Eestaurants and lunch rooms are 
another line of work that Greeks engage in with 
great success. There are two classes. 1 — Those 
which furnish Greek dishes. 2 — Those which follow 
the American kitchen. The latter class is getting 
more numerous and doing very successful work. 
There is scarcely a city where Greeks are found, 
and have not opened a restaurant or lunch room. 
It has almost become a proverb, ^* When Greek meets 
Greek he opens a restaurant." They were among 
the first to open first class restaurants in the south. 



82 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Those wMch follow the Greek kitchen are repro- 
ductions of the home institution, with the same 
dishes, style and manner of serving as in the old 
country. A number of them are of better grade, 
and Americans, especially those who have been in 
Greece or Turkey, like to visit them. 

Waiters. — A great many Greek young men serve 
as waiters in .^erican and Greek hotels and res- 
taurants. Some of them rise quickly into higher 
positions in this line. The tipping system in Amer- 
ica is highly remunerative. So many use the hotel 
or restaurant service as a stepping stone to some- 
thing higher. Many a student has worked his way 
through college or other studies in this way. Others 
open restaurants of their own. Greeks own and 
operate a number of prominent hotels in Brooklyn, 
Manhattan and other cities, with almost exclusive 
American constituency. Hotels for Greeks are nu- 
merous in all the Greek centers. 

One of the prosperous wholesale merchants in 
New York came from Greece with his three brothers 
burdened with debts owing to their father's busi- 
ness. They started as waiters. As soon as they 
saved some $2,000 they opened a grocery store and 
began importing goods from Greece. Now they are 
very successful wholesale grocers and in the export 
and import business. 

Groceries. — New York City has many Greek 
wholesale grocery merchants engaged also in import 
and export business. Fourteen of them formed a 
committee in 1919 to collect funds for Greek relief 
in Thrace and Asia Minor, to assist the work of 
the Greek Belief Committee. 

These merchants have great business with retail 
grocers scattered throughout the states, especially 
the eastern. Chicago is another important cen- 
ter for wholesale grocers and merchants who 
deal chiefly with the middle west and western states. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 83 

They are also doing an extensive business as fur- 
riers in New York and other places. 

Cigarette manufacturers. — Greeks have been pio- 
neers in cigarette manufacturing and the tobacco 
business. Anargyros Melanchrinos, Stefano Bros., 
Condax Bros., are a few of the well known Greeks 
in the cigarette business. In recent years there have 
appeared many Greek commercial houses dealing 
in tobacco and some of them have been very pros- 
perous. The Stefano Bros., Poulides Bros., the 
Standard Commercial Tobacco Co., Pialoglou Bros., 
B. D. Dugundji & Co., and Condax Bros., all of New 
York, are a few of the prominent tobacco merchants. 

Shipping. — The Greeks, being a seafaring and 
commercial people, have been very successful in 
steamship work. Thus the Greek Line or National 
Steam Navigation, 20 Pearl St., New York City, has 
regular steamships between New York and Piraeus, 
Greece. Also Greeks, naturalized in America, own 
ships and are doing good work between America and 
European ports, e.g., D. Theophilatos, Stephanides 
and Benas of New York. 

Agencies. — ^In New York and other important cen- 
ters there are many steamship ticket agents provid- 
ing many facilities for immigrants and emigrants 
at their arrival in or departure from the United 
States. Some have hotels and transportation facil- 
ities of their own. There have been many abuses 
in the past, at the expense of inexperienced immi- 
grants, but conditions are much improved. 

Banking. — Many Greeks have gone into banking. 
Besides many employed by American banks either 
as employees or heads of their Greek departments, 
they have organized banks with Greek capital. 
There are Greek banks in Boston and Chicago, and 
several are being organized in New York and other 
cities. 

Theaters. — Moving pictures and theater opera- 



84 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

tions have drawn a number of them. Although^ a 
great many operate small theaters and moving pic- 
ture houses, some have larger ones, e.g., in Pitts- 
burg, Pa., Paterson, N. J., and many other places. 
But the one Greek who has earned the title *'King 
of Theatres,'* is Mr. Alexander Pantazes of An- 
dres, Greece, who owns a whole series of theaters 
along the western coast, centering in Seattle, Wash. 

There are numerous Greek motion picture houses 
in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, 
and Texas. 

Many are in trades as barbers, bakers, carpenters, 
printers, tailors, furriers, shoemakers, electricians, 
machinists, etc. 

There are two other lines of work in which Greeks 
take a prominent part — shoe-shine parlors and cof- 
fee-houses. 

Shoe-shine parlors. — In connection with the shoe- 
shine parlors there is the question of child labor 
and the protection of the young workers from the 
grafting abuse of the bosses. Whatever abuses have 
happened in the past there has come about much 
improvement in the working conditions and the 
rights of the boys are well guarded by the law. In 
connection with the pool-rooms and the shoe-shine 
places there are often barber-shops and cigar and 
fruit stands. Coffee-houses have been imported 
with the immigrants and they accompany them in 
all their migrations. 

In Tarpon Springs, Fla., there is a strong Greek 
colony of 2,000, many of whom are sponge-divers. 

STANDARD OF LIVING AND WAGES 

The earlier immigrants, usually of a rather igno- 
rant peasant class, lived in crowded and unsanitary 
rooms. They did not realize the value of fresh air 
and sunlight, and the result was that many caught 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 85 

tuberculosis. Those who returned to Greece carried 
the germs to their homes also. 

They were careless of their diet and neglected 
their health, living on scanty food. It is true Greeks 
in general are moderate in eating and drinking and 
many take very light breakfasts. They may pass 
the day with bread and olives or cheese in their 
home towns or villages, but they soon found out they 
could not stand the struggle for life here on that 
kind of diet. Their main desire was to economize 
as much as they could, so that they might send 
home money for the support of their families. They 
followed an oriental proverb, ^^One cannot save by 
working but by not eating. " * ' Every penny unspent 
is a gain." 

There is great change now and improvement in 
every way. The negligent at first are now living 
in better circumstances, taking proper meals and 
keeping their rooms and clothing clean and tidy. 

The earlier comers were mostly single, ignorant 
men. As time passed they earned more and spent 
more. The married ones brought their families and 
the single got married. The family life brought its 
comforts and improvement. Greeks of a better and 
more educated class began to come to the United 
States. Among the immigrants, there are graduates 
of high schools and even of Athens University. 
Some of them may be found among the waiters and 
attendants in hotels and restaurants. Probably they 
are working their way in some college or university 
here. 

Houses. — Greek houses are usually tidy, clean and 
comfortable, with separate dining, living and sleep- 
ing rooms, although in large cities like New York, 
Greeks, like the rest of the people in the country, 
are endeavoring to utilize every room available, for 
the sake of economizing in this time of **high cost 
of living." 



S6 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Factory workers. — ^I am told by several who have 
traveled much and came into personal touch with 
many, that the men who work in factories, mills 
and railroads are as a rule attentive to their habits 
and take good care of themselves. In answer to 
my question as to their standing of living **0h, they 
are all Americanized," they said, **they know how 
and what to eat and how to live." 

High wages. — ^With the rest in the country, Greeks 
also are earning more and get higher wages. Com- 
mon laborers are making far more money than many 
an educated man. During the war many Greeks 
earned good sums of money in ammunition factories 
and ship-yards and generally in every trade. 

Among the Greeks usually men 'alone work for 
wages, while women attend to household work. 
Greek women are good in domestic science, are fond 
of cooking, sewing, knitting, and embroidery. After 
finishing the necessary household work, they usually 
make calls or do some handiwork. 

But now under new circumstances in America, 
everybody who can is working. Boys and girls are 
doing their part helping with the family expenses 
and increasing the savings. Women help their hus- 
bands in grocery stores, florist shops, or candy- 
stores. 

Savings. — Greeks, like other people, are earning 
more and spending more, but as a rule are saving 
money. Many have accounts in savings banks. It 
is surprising how illiterate persons have saved thou- 
sands of dollars. Many, however, carry all their 
savings in their pocket-books or keep it in their 
rooms. A case is known of a Greek who had his 
pocket picked of $12,000 in a theater in Detroit, 
Mich. Similar incidents are not rare. 

Greeks who left the United States for Greece since 
the armistice have taken along hundreds and thou- 
sands of dollars. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 87 

UNREST 

No unrest. — Greeks are loyal and respect order 
and government. There is no movement of unrest 
among them. Letters that came from many parts 
of the United States and numerous interviews with 
many leading personages in various walks of life, 
all showed one thing — '^ there is no unrest among the 
Greeks.'' 

H. C. L. — There is of course an undertone of com- 
plaint in all hearts against the high cost of living. 
The Greeks share this feeling of discontent, and 
many in their effort to explain the matter blame this 
or that individual or organization. 

Americans generalize. — I have heard loyal Amer- 
icans of leading political parties say ^4f things go 
as they are everybody will turn socialist." Many 
Greeks say the same, but all are speaking common 
generalities. While discussing this subject with a 
leading, educated Greek, I mentioned this fact. He 
at once replied with emphasis, ''Do not repeat any- 
thing like that, it may be misunderstood or misin- 
terpreted. There may be individual Greeks who 
cherish queer notions. And there are Americans 
who will at once generalize -and in the present day 
fashion of hunting for ringleaders of unrest they 
will rashly class the loyal Greeks among the an- 
archists, socialists, etc. It is a real fact, there is no 
unrest among us." 

Experience shows that the fear of this man was 
not groundless, because people meet a crook or de- 
ceiver among foreigners, they readily suspect all 
foreigners, and are seized with foreigno-phobia or 
Greeko-phobia. I know a number of fine, respecta- 
ble, Greek young men who had great difficulty in 
finding rooms, because landladies would not rent 
them to Greeks. They succeeded easily in finding 
what they wanted by passing for Frenchmen! 



Chapter HI 
THE GREEKS IN AMERICA (Continued) 

SOCIAL. CONDITIONS 

Improved social conditions. — Now, as a rule, peo- 
ple are living in more sanitary conditions than for- 
merly. Greeks, like other immigrants, adapt them- 
selves to circumstances. Those who arrive at any 
port in the United States searching for work are 
glad to find a place to put their head. The whole 
family of four, ^ve or more get along for a time 
in one room, but as soon as they get work and im- 
prove their circumstances, they seek better quarters 
with improved conditions of living. 

RECREATION- 

Coffee-houses. — Greeks have brought to America 
their customs and modes of recreation from the old 
country. Coffee-houses provide the principal recre- 
ation for men. People flock to these places day and 
night, sitting around tables, sipping black coifee, 
smoking cigars, or more commonly cigarettes, or the 
narghile, and discussing everything, — business, news 
of national interest, and of course the politics of 
Greece and the attitude of Americans towards them. 
At times they discuss American politics. There are 
often animated discussions that might be taken for 
quarrels by those who do not understand Greek, but 
it is all verbal, no blows exchanged excepting the 
blows the tables or chairs receive. Greeks, like the 
Latin people, accompany their words with multiple 
gestures of hands and head, maybe even the foot, 
or the whole body. 

88 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 89 

Games. — Certain games are played in almost all 
the coffee-houses, — cards, backgammon, chess, and 
dominoes. Cards are the most common game. 
They are often played for pastime and recreation. 

Gambling. — But unfortunately gambling is fre- 
quently connected with them. Almost every answer 
to my questionnaire mentioned gambling as the chief 
evil among the Greeks in America. 

In discussing this matter, an American friend 
wondered whether the case was any worse among 
the Greeks than among Americans or other races. 
Probably not worse. 

Lack of social centers. — In many places Greeks, 
working in factories and mills, have no proper 
amusement or entertainment centers after working 
hours. As one of them in Canton, Ohio, put it, ^ ' they 
do not know English, cannot attend lectures or other 
meetings, they have no books and could not read 
them if they had; they have no homes and do not 
indulge in evil jDractices, so they spend the evenings 
playing cards and a little sum of money serves as 
a stimulant.'' 

Refreshments. — Greek coffee-houses take the 
place of what used to be the saloon, and serve usually 
as social centers where people meet each other, form 
new acquaintances, and get rested. Here are served 
coffee, tea, lemonade, and Greek pastry {paklava 
• — used also by Armenians, Syrians and Turks.) 
Unfortunately coffee-houses are much abused, as 
people get a lazy and sedentary habit, breathing foul 
and smoky air in a crowded hall and wasting valu- 
able time. 

Motion-pictures, theaters and concerts are more 
and more being attended by Greeks, especially those 
who understand English. Dancing, both Greek and 
American, is much enjoyed everywhere. 

Receptions and Dances. — Many Greek societies 
hold annual receptions with balls or theatrical pres- 



90 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

entations, and as they are numerous in New York 
and other cities, there are frequent entertainments. 
On such occasions, amateurs or professionals present 
a drama in Greek and a comedy is usually added 
at the end. A band plays American and Greek airs. 
Dancing begins at the end, lasting often till morn- 
ing hours. The grand march is usually the finale. 
As there are not many Greek young women, many 
Greek young men bring American or English speak- 
ing girls. 

Picnics. — Another feature of these societies is 
their annual picnics or outings to some park or 
summer resort. Here again life in the homeland 
is reproduced. National songs are sung, dances and 
games are played. Some resort to various athletic 
events, which are extremely popular with certain 
young men, and some societies give prizes to the 
successful contestants. 

Lamb, roasted in Greek style, is sometimes the 
finale. 

Wine, as in Greece, is used on such occasions. 
Meals and parties are regarded as dry and spiritless 
without some spirituous substance. In general, 
however, moderation is the rule and excesses are 
usually avoided. 

Visiting. — Another source of much pleasure and 
entertainment is visiting homes, especially on saints' 
days, which takes the place of birthday among the 
Greeks. Often a child is called after the saint of 
the day on which he is born. Friends and relatives 
visit on such occasions and there is much enjoyment, 
music, dancing, chatting and playing indoor games. 
Games played in American parties are being intro- 
duced into such gatherings and are proving very 
enjoyable. Phonographs are getting very popular 
and both American and Greek and even Turkish airs 
are played. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 91 

FAMILY LIFE 

Husband and wife. — Greeks are very much de- 
voted to their families. Whatever freedom may be 
allowed to men during their pre-marital life, it is un- 
derstood and expected that, after the marriage, a 
new chapter is to be opened and strictly clean rec- 
ords are to be entered in it. Women of course have 
always to be exemplary and pure in every way. 
Divorce is uncommon among the Greeks. Children 
are numerous and are regarded as blessings and 
gifts of God. However poor and ignorant parents 
may be they are anxious to educate their children 
in good schools. 

There is not much data for comparing the first 
and the second generations, as to family life, but 
there are many indications that the new generation 
is getting Americanized and is learning both the 
good and bad aspects of American life. 

Divorce. — A Greek young man was asked: 
** Would you marry a Greek or an American?" He 
replied ** American." To the question, *^Will you 
be able to agree together and be happy?" *^If we 
do not, then we get divorced," was his emphatic 
reply. He would never have thought or said so in 
Greece or Turkey. There marriage is thought of 
as a matter of harmony and love to last till death. 

Children are devoted to their parents and rela- 
tives. Young men gladly undergo many troubles and 
live a life of thrift and self-denial in order to save, 
and send money to their parents. They pay the old 
debts of their parents to keep up their good repu- 
tation or save paternal inheritance. They postpone 
or even forego marriage in order to get their sisters 
married. Unfortunately the evil custom of dowry 
continues in the old country. So fathers and 
brothers working here must save money in order to 



92 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

provide dowry for daughters and sisters. It is a 
good thing that the custom of dowry is getting 
broken in America, though not entirely abandoned. 

Neighborhood life. — People from the same town 
or village in Greece are usually drawn together in 
America too. The newcomers find out first of all 
the whereabouts of their relatives and fellow-coun- 
trymen. In fact they may come directly to them, 
having already corresponded with them. Even those 
of different toA\Tis are very helpful to one another 
in finding work and if need be helping each other 
financially and otherwise. They room together; 
work together; frequent the same cofPee-house, club 
and restaurant. Thus close attachments are formed. 

Here people may live in the same neighborhood 
(even the same house), and not get acquainted with 
each other. Not so among the Greeks; they easily 
get acquainted and are friendly and neighborly to 
one another. 

Of course this does not mean there are no ill- 
feelings, rivalries, competition or even animosities 
among them. Those of the same trade or profession 
are often bitter rivals against each other. 

Moral standards. — Greeks are usually temperate 
and sober; prudent moderation characterizes their 
pleasure and enjoyments. Most of the answers to 
the question as to the moral conditions among the 
Greeks said '^good''; ^'fairly good"; ^^fair"; *^not 
any worse than their neighbors or others." 

In general they are loyal and obedient to the laws 
of the country. Their chief misdemeanors are neg- 
lect of police or sanitary regulations. They bring 
from the old country certain bad habits. Some of 
them resort to deceptive methods, yet even such peo- 
ple find by experience the truth that *^ Honesty is the 
best policy." In general they are honest and re- 
liable. 

Temptations are many on all hands, and some 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 93 

young men who were pure and temperate in their 
homeland have been led astray in America, usually 
through bad companionship. Women of low morals, 
supposedly American, speaking English, visit them 
in their rooms. Most of them are single young men 
of military age, at the prime of their youth and 
strength, open to all influences in the formative 
period of their character. 

Unfortunately they do not see the best in Ameri- 
can life, and the evil is always near. In justifying 
misconduct they often say, *^This is America; we 
are not in Greece or Turkey. Here customs are dif- 
ferent, and everything is possible." Even suppos- 
edly good people change their standard of life here. 
Possibly change of circumstances and environraent 
brings out what was in them or draws them into 
courses of life they would not have been led into 
at home. A young man who would not help his par- 
ents, as it is customary to do in Greece, said in jus- 
tifying his refusal, ''This is America; every one has 
to look after his own interest and mind his own 
business.'' 

United States a mission field. — Many good people, 
Greeks and others, who had known missionaries and 
their work among the Greeks and Armenians in 
Turkey, and who have seen chiefly the street life 
or the disorderly conduct in houses and apartments 
or saloons, and who have not seen and cannot see 
the citizens of better class and character in their 
home life, ask, ''Why do the missionaries go away 
from this country? This is the real field for their 
work; those on the other side are real Christians; 
here is hell." 

Safeguarding youth. — As there is ground for pre- 
caution and exclusion of corrupting influences from 
abroad, there is equally great need to keep the in- 
experienced youth from abroad from coming into 
contact with the corrupting elements in America, 



94 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

and to surround them with better influences, with 
proper social environment, pure amusements and 
innocent entertainments. 

RELATION TO OTHER RACIAL GROUPS 

Friendly to other races. — Greeks are usually- 
friendly and on good terms with representatives of 
other races. Political questions and collisions of 
views and interests have created a mutual antago- 
nism between Greeks, Albanians, and Bulgarians, 
and Turks. They cannot work together amicably. 
In normal times they can all get along well. There 
are many cases of strong friendship and attachment 
between individuals from these various groups men- 
tioned as antagonistic. Greeks from Turkey are 
often on very good terms with the Turks, when they 
meet in this country, especially those coming from 
the same region. War, however, upsets all condi- 
tions, destroys best friendships, and creates bitter 
animosities. Albanians and Greeks were very 
friendly until foreign intrigues separated them. 
Should those intrigues stop, Greeks and Albanians 
can adjust their differences, and may even form a 
strong alliance. There are many Albanians in 
Greece, and some of the most prominent, patriotic 
citizens of Greece were of Albanian descent. 

Esteemed by Americans.—Greeks are held gener- 
ally in good esteem by Americans and other races. 
There have been, however, exceptions, especially 
years ago when a mostly ignorant and low type of 
Greeks, only, were known to a great many Ameri- 
cans. Greeks had a rather low standing. Also, 
owing to the elasticity of the meaning of Greek, 
menabers of the Greek Church of other races being 
also called Greek, often crimes and offenses of Bul- 
garians, Albanians, Eumanians and other races, 
even Turks, were ascribed to Greeks. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 95 

Marriage between Greeks. — ^In general Greek men 
marry Greek women. As there are not many Greek 
women in the United States, when a young man 
wants to marry he writes home to his parents to 
find a bride for him. After a successful search when 
the selection is decided upon, photographs are ex- 
changed and the result may be an engagement. 
Then the young lady comes to America and they 
get married. The story of Isaac and Eebecca is re- 
peated frequently or the young man may go home 
for a furlough and the matter is settled there. The 
tendency is to select a bride from their own village 
or town, following a popular proverb, **Even if you 
are to buy shoes or sandals, buy them from your 
own place. ' ' 

Intermarriage. — Still there are many cases of in- 
termarriage with other races. When the two, man 
and woman, of whatever race, agree in temperament, 
culture, tastes, they live in happiness. But when 
there has been a hasty marriage without proper mu- 
tual acquaintance, many difficulties rise. Differ- 
ences in taste, as to diet, manners of life, habits, 
customs, religious and denominational matters, all 
create an atmosphere of misery, and may end in 
discord and divorce. 

Religious. — ^Keligious principles are inculcated 
ordinarily in terms of patriotism. Even the cele- 
bration of the resurrection of Jesus at Easter sug- 
gests to them the hope of the resurrection of their 
nation; the Annunciation by the Angel to Mary is 
coupled with the declaration of the independence of 
Greece, etc. They are superstitious, being strongly 
devoted to old customs, usages, and practices. Such 
devotion, however, is often coupled in them with 
moral indifference. 

They are generally thrifty, energetic, enterpris- 
ing, alert, intelligent. Here are some of the virtues 
and evils mentioned by various Greeks as character- 



96 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

izing their people in answer to my questionnaire: 
Chief virtues : ** Steady and hard working; success 
in any enterprise they undertake; united in their 
national aspirations and religious doctrines; indus- 
triousness, love of country, dependability in busi- 
ness, ambition to succeed; love for their families; 
patriotism, loyalty and good-fellowship; progres- 
siveness; morality; economy; honesty; integrity; 
wide-awakeness ; good citizenship, thrift ; steadiness 
in work; frugality; independence; quietness and re- 
spect of laws; love of work; ambition for higher and 
better conditions of life ; freedom from communistio 
ideas." 

Chief evils : *^ Selfishness ; lack of organization and 
community centers; the so-called ^' Greek Cafes''; 
discord and divisions among themselves; ignorance 
of English and lack of proper education in general ; 
propagandist press, disloyal both to the United 
States and Greece divides us (Greeks) ; card-play- 
ing, the worst of all; gambling among the low class 
people (mentioned by many) ; envy and jealousy 
among themselves ; none ver}'- bad ; lack of enthusi- 
asm to commune with nature; coffee-house loitering; 
vile talking." 

RELATION TO AMERICAN PEOPLE, IDEALS, INSTITUTIONS, 

ETC. 

Love for America. — Greeks have always looked 
up to America and the American people with devotion 
and admiration; an affectionate regard has charac- 
terized all references to America by Greeks. Since 
the war of Greek independence, at which time Amer- 
ica showed practical sympathy and support to 
Greeks through relief work, they have had a special 
regard and appreciation for America. 

The American School of Archaeology in Athens, 
and the various American educational institutions 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 97 

in the Near East have greatly strengthened these 
bonds of affection and have drawn the Greeks closer 
to American ideals and institutions. 

Those who have come to the United States have 
always been loyal to the American government, 
laws and other institutions, and feel much attached 
to the American people. Everywhere they wish to 
get acquainted with Americans, to learn their ways 
and get the benefit of the educational, social and 
other opportunities. Those who know English and 
are able to appreciate American thought and ideals 
are drawn with deepest admiration to America. 
Those who are apparently distant or unappreciative 
are usually ignorant of the language, hence unable 
to understand this country, and so remain isolated 
and clannish, keeping company with their compa- 
triots only, and always using the Greek language. 

Democratic. — All Greeks feel grateful for the hos- 
pitality, and business and educational opportunities 
they find on American soil. Greeks are truly demo- 
cratic by nature, temperament and upbringing. The 
ideas of the oldest democracy in history, and those 
of the greatest republic of modern times — of all 
times — are identical. Therefore devotion to Greek 
ideals is not antagonistic to loyalty to America; on 
the contrary they go together and strengthen each 
other. All true Americans have been lovers and 
friends of Greece, sympathetic in all her difficulties, 
and kindly towards her aspirations. In turn all true 
Greeks have always admired American ideals and 
aspired to learn and practice them. 

This we see illustrated in those Greeks who have 
studied in American schools and colleges in the Near 
East or United States. Graduates and students of 
these institutions have been warmly devoted to them, 
and have acted everywhere as missionaries of Amer- 
ican ideas and institutions. They are among the 
leaders and best influences in the life of Greek com- 



98 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

munities and serve as links of connection and mutual 
acquaintance between Americans and Greeks. Such 
are lawyers, engineers, physicians, literary, and 
business men. 

Helicon. — There are several associations of Greek 
students in American colleges and universities. 
The oldest is ^* Helicon'' of Boston and has ren- 
dered great service in bringing students together 
and in arranging series of lectures and addresses 
for the enlightenment of the people. There is also 
a ** Helicon'' in Berkeley, Cal., and a similar asso- 
ciation, ** Greek Students' Association Helicon," in 
New York. The latter is gathering statistics of the 
Greek students in various American colleges and 
universities. By the courtesy of Mr. T. Cottakis, 
Secretary of the ^* Helicon," I have secured the fol- 
lowing figures (1920) : 

students of Engineering 26 

" " Medicine 18 

" " Chemistry 8 

" Law 3 

" " Pharmacy 2 

" " Commercial Science 8 

" " Academic 8 

" Dentistry 4 

" " Agriculture 6 

" " Philosophy 1 

" " Finance 1 

" " Liberal Arts 1 

" Art 8 

Total 94 

The list is incomplete. It could easily be doubled. 
I know several studying theology and other subjects 
that do not appear in it. *^ Helicon" is endeavoring 
to complete it. 

There is also a greater number of Greeks attend- 
ing high schools and business schools in various 
parts of the country, and almost all the Greek chil- 
dren of school age are attending public schools, a 
limited number going to private schools. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 99 

A remarkable thing about Greek students is tbe 
fact that almost 95 percent of them are working- 
their way through college or university. Thus Dr. 
E. Demos of the Department of Philosophy, Har- 
vard University, writes, *^I hope you will stress in 
your report the increasing number of Greek students 
in America — the fact that 95 percent are earning 
their own way along, that when they graduate they 
enter into professional activities and become respon- 
sible citizens. '^ 

Illustrations. — ^When I visited Michigan Uni- 
versity, in 1916, I found some 10 or 12 students^ 
graduates and former students of Anatolia College, 
Marsovan, Asia Minor, all earning their way. They 
earned their meals by serving as waiters in clubs 
and boarding houses, secured their rooms by attend- 
ing to the furnace of some house, and worked in 
summer for their tuition. Now one is a successful 
dentist, several are physicians, others engineers. 
The same is true of other schools. One who worked 
in a shoe-shine parlor has successfully finished col- 
lege and law school, and is now a very proficient 
attorney. Another kept a shoe-shine parlor and hat- 
cleaning establishment, working himself, while he 
studied political science in winter. Dr. Constans 
of Washington, D. C, went through his medical 
course by keeping a barber-shop and now occupies 
a prominent position as professor and p^^ysician. 
Others work as waiters in restaurants, ice-cream 
or shoe-shine parlors, business offices, farms, or as 
tutors. 

Successful in studies. — Many a Greek student has 
had a bright record in his college or university 
career. Dr. E. Demos, a graduate of Anatolia Col- 
lege, Marsovan, took a post-graduate course in phi- 
losophy at Harvard with distinction, receiving Ph.D. 
in three years and a scholarship which enabled him 
to take two years' study at Cambridge University, 



100 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

England, and at Paris. He is now assistant in the 
Department of Philosophy at Harvard. 

Dr. A. E. Phoutrides, after graduating with dis- 
tinction at Mount Hermon School, Massachusetts, 
and in classical studies at Harvard, won a traveling 
scholarship, and visited Rome and Athens and other 
places in Europe and assisted in classical studies 
at Harvard. He had been appointed professor of 
Greek Literature at Athens University, Athens, 
Greece. But on the return of Constantino returned 
to Harvard, where he is teaching Greek. He is the 
author of a volume of verses in English and trans- 
lated ^'Life Immovable,'' by Costes Palamas of 
Athens, Greece. Another Greek holding a high aca- 
demic position is Rev. Prof. Andrew Zenos of Mc- 
Cormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, 111. 

Mr. N. Cassavetes worked in an ice-cream parlor 
when he came to America, a little boy. He gradu- 
ated from Mt. Hermon School, being valedictorian 
of his class, and took courses at Harvard with much 
credit. Now he is at the head of the Pan-Epirotic 
Union of America, and the League of the Friends of 
Greece, both in Boston, Mass. 

Dr. Theodore Ion was Professor of International 
Law at Boston University, now practicing law and 
director of the American Hellenic Society and author 
of various publications, and many magazine articles. 

Dr. L. Hadjopoulos, graduate of Anatolia College, 
Marsovan, after graduating with a bright record 
from the Medical School of Cornell University, 
served at the Bellevue and other hospitals and is 
still connected with the staff of a New York hospital. 
Dr. P. N. Papas and Dr. C. J. Soukires graduates 
of Anatolia College, Marsovan, graduated, one from 
Harvard Medical School, and the other from Balti- 
more Medical College and both are on the staff of 
Boston hospitals. Dr. L. P. Kyrides, graduate of 
Michigan University, is the research chemist of the 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 101 

National Chemical Aniline Company at New York 
Laboratory. Dr. J. G. Stateropoulos, graduate of 
Yale University, is the research chemist of a promi- 
nent firm, Brooklyn, N. Y. Both are graduates of 
Anatolia College, Marsovan. The late Prof. Sopho- 
cles, Professor of Greek at Harvard, and author of a 
Greek English Lexicon, and Michael Anagnos, Di- 
rector of Perkins Listitute, Boston, Mass., were 
Greeks. Mr. M. Dorizzas, a graduate of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, and Dr. V. Moysides, of Mich- 
igan University, besides distinction in their studies, 
have a high record in athletics and won much repu- 
tation as wrestlers. They represent a group of 
Greek student athletes who shine in athletics as well 
as scholarship. 

It was a Greek, Trivoulides by name, who won the 
Marathon race at Boston, Mass., in 1920. 

Mr. Nicolay of Greece is a successful tenor in the 
Chicago Opera, and several others are getting repu- 
tations as singers. So there are dentists, engineers, 
lawyers, artists, actors, doing great credit to the 
Greek name. 

The record of almost every Greek student in 
America would be a matter of great credit and much 
interest as an achievement in culture and attain- 
ment through self-help and thrift. 

Political Relations. — At first Greeks came to 
America with the intention to make money as fast 
as they could, and to return enriched to their native 
land as soon as possible. Consequently they kept 
aloof from American politics, neither taking any 
interest or part in them. It is only lately that they 
began to appreciate the value of citizenship and 
naturalization. Some have already taken out their 
second papers, and a far greater number their first 
papers. It may not be far from the truth that one- 
fifth of the Greeks are already citizens and the num- 
ber is growing daily. 



102 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS AND FORCES 

No destructive organizations. — There are no de- 
structive organizations among the Greeks in Amer- 
ica, or elsewhere. There is a Greek socialist society 
in New York, but it is a rather microscopic affair 
and is not much heard of. Before 1917, when open- 
air meetings on radical questions were allowed, one 
of the speakers, or rather salesmen (for the speakers 
aimed chiefly at selling books of the New York Sec- 
ular Society) was Greek. There may be a few others 
like him, belonging to socialist or secularist organi- 
zations ; but there is no destructive organization dis- 
tinctively Greek. 

Constructive Greek societies. — There are, how- 
ever, very many constructive Greek societies, asso- 
ciations, leagues or brotherhoods, as they are called 
in all the Greek communities in America. The num- 
ber and the constitution of their organizations illus- 
trate the Greek tendency to individualism and decen- 
tralization. There is no organization comprising all 
the Greeks in a single union or comprising all fac- 
tions, parties and localities. Eepresentatives of al- 
most every prominent village or to^vn have formed 
separate organizations here with a definite program 
for each. There is a tendency now to group and 
unite the various local associations into one central 
one, which might have branches in different parts of 
the country. Thus there are various local Samian 
societies; they all unite in the Pan-Samian society, 
Pythagoras, with branches in New York, Peabody, 
Mass., etc. There are various societies of Greeks 
from Chios. Then the Panchiotic society, ' ' Koraes, ' ' 
with its center in New York. 

There are over 80 or 90 Greek societies in New 
York City alone, with many others scattered in all 
the Greek communities in the United States and 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 103 

Canada. A good many exist in name only. They 
have been formed at a time of enthusiasm for some 
definite object, then the founders leave or die or 
the original object is no more pressing, and they 
are forgotten or dissolved. 

Each society has an executive committee, with 
president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and 
councilors, and various sub-committees, e.g., audit- 
ing committee. Some have regular collectors who 
are paid for their labor, a fact indicating the diffi- 
culty in collecting dues. Some have rented haUs 
with library, newspapers, and a coifee-house where 
members and others can have refreshments, rest and 
play the usual games. Such are the Lacedsemonian 
society of the Spartans, Marmoras; Hellespont so- 
ciety of the Madytians; The Castorian society, 
*^Omonia,'' New York City; Panchiotic society, 
^^Koraes,*' New York City, etc. Others have no 
special office or hall, but are known by the address 
of the president, secretary or treasurer. It may be 
some barber shop, bakery, tailor shop, hotel or res- 
taurant or grocery. With the change of the officers 
the address changes. 

Mutual Benevolence. — A good many of them are 
mutual benevolent societies, each member contrib- 
uting a monthly or weekly fee and receiving an al- 
lowance in case of sickness. It is also part of the 
plan to help their poor compatriots in case of sick- 
ness, and provide for their funeral if they die. 

Others have in view to render some help to their 
native town or village in Greece or Turkey, etc., in 
church or school work, or some public utility. 

Some have an educational program with evening 
classes in Greek, English and other courses. They 
also hold courses of lectures and addresses on Sun- 
days. Such is Plato, an educational society. New 
York. 

Most of these societies are social and educational 



104 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

centers as well as serving benevolent ends. They 
give their annual reception in one of the theaters or 
halls to which the whole Greek community of the 
town is invited, admission being by ticket, and the 
proceeds go to defray the expenses and the surplus 
to the society's work or some definite benevolent 
end, as relief work. 

In recent years some of the most prominent and 
wealthier societies like the Lacedaemonian Society, 
Greek American Florist Association, Greek Ladies 
Benevolent Society, all of New York, have been hold- 
ing their receptions at the Waldorf Astoria, Hotel 
Astor or Commodore. The decorations and the gen- 
eral arrangements in the hall are carried out by a 
decorating committee of the society, who display 
such good taste and produce such fine effects that 
their work would be a credit even to a well-organized 
American society or club. Societies in Chicago, 
Pittsburg, Boston, and elsewhere do similar work 
with similar effects. Some have annual dinners, 
iSTew Year and Christmas parties or arrange Christ- 
mas trees for the children. 

Relation to Sunday observance. — The only objec- 
tion from the American Protestant standpoint would 
be that all the picnics and many social affairs are 
held on Sunday, which is observed, customarily, 
as a pleasure day. There also may be an objection 
to some dances from the evangelical standpoint. 
Greeks have what is commonly known as the Conti- 
nental Sunday. Some may attend church service 
in the morning and devote the rest of the day to 
pleasure and recreation. Others do the same for 
the whole day, omitting church attendance. 

There are one or two other organizations that 
require special mention. I have already mentioned 
the ^^ Greek Students' Association Helicon." There 
is a similar organization in New York, the Greek- 
American Inter-Collegiate League, consisting of 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 105 

leading physicians, lawyers, engineers and literary 
men. They have regular monthly meetings at which 
living scientific topics are discussed. Part of their 
program is to spread scientific and hygienic infor- 
mation among their people. They have circulated 
a pamphlet on tuberculosis in Greek, and are plan- 
ning to send out other leaflets treating of social 
problems. Such organizations would grow more, 
and exert greater influence, if branches were formed 
in other Greek centers, because there are many cul- 
tured and able college and university men scattered 
in various communities. They would be of great 
power if they could all be united in a well-organized 
association. 

The Pan-Hellenic Union of America, as its name 
indicates, aims at uniting all the Greeks in the 
United States, irrespective of political views or place 
of birth, in one organization, with the center in 
New York and branches in all the prominent com- 
munities, thus rising above the limitations of the 
other local societies. Among its objects are included 
the giving of a social center to the Greeks with read- 
ing room, and assembly hall for lectures, addresses, 
and social occasions; to conduct evening classes in 
English and other practical and business courses; 
to establish scholarships to help deserving students 
to take practical and scientific courses in American 
institutions; to provide funds for charitable work, 
especially under the care of the women's branch; 
to have information and employment bureaus for 
the benefit of immigrants, and to help all patriotic 
causes. Thus the union has a broad and compre- 
hensive program, but unfortunately it is not put into 
action. In the first place its very aim defeats it. 
Greeks being individualists and under the sway of 
local influences, they form smaller local societies, 
just as they had city states in ancient Greece, and 
failed to organize one big ^^ United States.*' Then, 



106 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

the union has been made an object of attack and 
criticism as if it were a partisan institution, hence 
it has the support of only one party at present, the 
Venizelists. 

Before and during the Balkan wars, the Pan-Hel- 
lenic Union rendered noble and enthusiastic service 
to the Greek cause. It raised large sums of money, 
and armed and sent to the Balkan front soldiers 
free of all charge to the Greek government. 

Pan-Epirotic Union. — The Pan-Epirotic Union of 
Boston, with branches in other parts of the United 
States should be mentioned. It was organized to de- 
fend the claims of Greece to Northern Epirus. In 
1918 the Union raised a considerable sum of money 
among its members and friends, for the relief of suf- 
fering Greeks in Asia Minor and Thrace. Northern 
Epirus claimed by the Albanians and Italians was 
truly Greek at heart and responded sympathetically 
towards relief of their brethren oppressed under the 
Turkish yoke. 

Through the activities of the Pan-Epirotic Union, 
there was organized the League of the Friends of 
Greece in the same center as the Union, but with a 
wider scope, i. e., to defend the rights of Greece in 
all the regions under dispute, Thrace, Asia Minor, 
Dodecanese, as well as Northern Epirus. 

Loyalist or Royalist Leagues. — There are what 
are called Loyalist organizations in various Greek 
communities with headquarters in New York. How- 
ever, they do nothing constructive. Their main ob- 
jective is propaganda in favor of King Constantino 
or the Royalist party, sending him congratulatory 
cablegrams, or messages to the President of the 
United States denouncing Venizelos and his policy. 
The Loyalist WeeJcly is their organ. The Venizel- 
ists are organized into what is called the League of 
Liberals, with branches in many states. They have 
state and federal organizations. The Federal head- 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 107 

quarters are in New York. Their official organ, a 
weekly, published in New York, is called The Liberal 
Bulletin. A part of their program is the establish- 
ment of a republic in Greece. Unfortunately these 
parties divide the Greeks into the fighting camps 
so that the Eoyalist and Venizelos controversy and 
discussions are carried on constantly in houses, 
stores, coffee-houses, churches, and everywhere. 
Often members of the same family are divided 
against each other. 

Greek-American Boy Scouts. — There is in New 
York the Greek-American Boy Scouts organization, 
under Royalist control and direction, which fact un- 
fortunately limits its usefulness, regarded as par- 
tisan and for political ends. It ought to have been 
a real Greek American organization for all the 
Greeks, supported by all, irrespective of political 
views, for the good of the rising generation. What- 
ever King Midas of Phrygia touched turned to gold: 
whatever Greeks touch becomes political. Politi- 
cians are managing to make capital out of everything 
for their own ends. 



EDUCATION^AL. FOECES 

Attend public schools. — Greeks seek wisdom. 
Wherever they go, they open and support schools. 
Parents are anxious to educate their children well. 
So they are very glad to take advantage of the pub- 
lic schools. All children of school age attend public 
schools, excepting a small number that go to pri- 
vate schools. The public school is a melting pot 
where children of all races are receiving the same 
training. They all learn English, sing patriotic and 
popular American songs, play American games, sa- 
lute and respect the Stars and Stripes and when they 
finish the public school or reach high school, they are 
already Americanized. 



108 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Greek American Institute. — There are no pa- 
rochial schools among the Greeks of the type preva- 
lent among the Roman Catholics. The only school 
approaching that type is the Greek American Insti- 
tute, Eagle Avenue, New York City. It is regarded 
^s a typical institution where Greek children should 
receive an education similar to that in the American 
public schools while getting at the same time train- 
ing in the Greek language, institutions, and Greek 
Orthodox doctrine. It is supposed it will serve as 
the Acropolis of Hellenism, preserving the Greek 
language and religion, besides giving the children 
the essentials of American education. Some 200 
pupils attend it. It has a boarding as well as day 
school department. 

Church schools. — There has recently been opened 
a number of schools connected with the Greek 
churches or communities in the United States. 
Church and school go hand in hand among the 
Greeks in all lands. Education has been entrusted 
to the church. There are some 150 Greek churches 
in the United States, but only 40 to 50 schools, but 
the number is growing. The plan is to gather the 
children after school hours from 4-6 or 7 P.M. to 
teach them only the rudiments of the Greek 
language and Greek religious instruction similar to 
that in Greece, i. e.. Sacred History, consisting of 
the story of the Old and the New Testaments, and 
elementary catechism. All the other subjects are 
taught in the public schools in English. Such schools 
are usually in the basement of the church, not very 
sunny or conducive to the health of the children. 
Some churches are planning to build separate school 
buildings, and all is being carried out by private 
donations and contributions. 

Private schools. — There are a number of private 
schools in New York and other centers where chil- 
dren and adults learn Greek. Some are night 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 109 

schools, others give instruction during the day also. 
Some adults have learned reading and writing in 
such schools. Then there are private day and night 
schools in the large Greek centers, to teach English 
under Greek direction. Some schools have Ameri- 
can teachers. 

Books and newspapers. — Most of the books pub- 
lished in Greece on history, biography, religion, fic- 
tion, etc., can be obtained at the principal Greek 
book stores, especially at those of Atlantis and the 
Natiofial Herald, New York. There are book stores 
in all the important centers. Besides original works 
there are many translations from French, English, 
German and Italian, but the first two predominate. 
Greeks in America have contributed a number of 
original works including stories, fiction, poems, 
dramas, and religion. There are several transla- 
tions and adaptations from English into Greek. 

But the chief contribution has been in the line of 
newspapers and monthlies. 

Greeks carry with them wherever they go, their 
love for news. So in America too, many attempts 
are made to meet their need and cravings. Many 
Greek papers appear and disappear from time to 
time. 

The largest Greek newspapers in the world are 
those in New York, which go all over the United 
States, Canada, South America, and even Greece and 
Turkey, in fact wherever Greeks are found. They 
are Atlantis and National Herald. The first is the 
oldest Greek daily in the United States. It started 
in 1894 as a monthly, then it became bi-monthly, 
weekly, and at last daily. It grew as it went. The 
second started almost full grown from the very be- 
ginning, with a capital of $100,000 in 1915, but it has 
gained much ground growing and improving. 

Both Atlantis and National Herald have illus- 
trated monthly editions, with fine pictures illustrat- 



110 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

ing life and scenes in America and elsewhere. They 
are the best of their kind, unequaled in all the Greek 
world, so far as material and pictures are concerned. 

Party spirit. — The party opposition and rivalry 
among the Greeks appears in all its bitterness and 
hatred in the press which reflects and at the same 
time kindles and animates it. Atlantis claims to be 
independent. At present it is Royalist, the National 
Herald, Venizelist. Besides the party opposition, 
there is the bitter newspaper competition between 
them, each striving to supplant the other and have 
the whole field for itself. Atlantis has seen the rise 
and fall of many rivals and stood gaining ground. 

But the National Herald too, has started vigor- 
ously, fought valiantly and kept gaining ground. 

Services of the press. — The press is a great power 
among the Greeks. It meets a great demand. 
Doubtless it renders a great service to the public in 
general, the Greeks in particular, and to the United 
States Government. Whatever bitter differences 
and quarrels newspapers may have among them- 
selves they all defend the United States Government. 
They urge the people to learn English and to re- 
spect and obey the laws. They publish and explain 
all the news concerning the public welfare. 

They give also prominent space to all matters con- 
cerning the Liberty and Victory Loans, Eed Cross, 
Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A. and other humanitarian 
organizations. They preach Americanization. 

Besides they are educating and informing the 
Greeks on many valuable points in hygiene, manners, 
and social conditions. Many ignorant Greeks are 
improving their Greek and general knowledge by 
the newspapers. 

Leadership. — As in Greece, so in America, it is 
difficult to be a leader among the Greeks. They are 
too individualistic and all aspire to leadership. 
Their weakness lies in their factiousness and eager- 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 111 

ness for dispute and controversy, quibbling and so- 
phistication. This weakens their moral influence 
and diminishes their usefulness. The difficulty is 
enhanced by political divisions, as politics pervade 
all departments, the church as well as secular con- 
cerns. Hence the followers of one party are not 
willing to be led by leaders in the churches, the press 
or diplomatic service who are of a different party. 

Quotations on leadership. — Some of the answers 
my correspondents gave as to leadership among the 
Greeks are as follows : 

^'Hardly any"; ^^They are taken care of by good 
leaderi^''; ^^ Inspiring; good; at present there is good 

leadership, through the Hellenic .Society of 

which controls Church affairs also;'* '^None of 
any consequence;'' ^^ Every one wants to be the 
leader, so they do not readily follow their leaders.'' 

Many correspondents had left blank this question. 

As leaders among the Greeks in America I would 
mention. 

1 — The press; the newspapers reach and influence 
a wider group than any other factor. 

2 — The church leaders: the bishops and other 
clergy. In spite of the lack of culture and fitness for 
leadership of a good many priests, they are a power 
in Greek communities, as they come into touch with 
the people at important occasions, such as sickness, 
marriage, baptism, and death. 

3 — Those in diplomatic service at the Legation 
at Washington, D. C, and the consulates at various 
places. As official representatives of the Greek na- 
tion, the people have to apply to them on many occa- 
sions for advice, as well as for official functions. 
They have much influence which would have been 
greater, had it not been for political factions. 

4 — The literary and educated men, such as physi- 
cians, lawyers, writers, and teachers, play an impor- 
tant part in the life of the communities. At various 



112 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

gatherings, people look up to them to act and speak. 

5 — Prominent and successful business men, espe- 
cially those devoted to generous giving. 

6-— The presidents and other officers of the various 
societies and clubs. They often sway the members 
and friends of their organizations. 

FORCES OF ASSIMILATIOIT 

Americanization. — A great deal is being said and 
written regarding the Ainericanization or assimila- 
tion of the immigrants that seems strange. Some of 
the heated utterances sound like the nationalistic 
theories of the Pan-Germans or the Pan-Slavists. If 
the various races are to be forced to forget all their 
racial peculiarities and characteristic customs, 
usages, and language, and to adopt American ways, 
instead, the result will be disappointing. Whenever 
a people is forced to accept, willingly or unwillingly, 
a certain course of action, the result has usually been 
the opposite of what was desired. 

But if without being interfered with in their cher- 
ished customs, ideas, language and traditions, they 
are surrounded with a genial American atmosphere 
and are given suitable opportunities to learn Aineri- 
can ways, ideas, language and institutions ; in short, 
if they are gradually taught what is good in their 
new surroundings, while they retain what was good 
and useful in their former life, all the immigrants 
will be Americanized in due time. 

Even the word ^^Americanization'' sounds strange 
to many ears ; it sounds like suppression, force. Let 
the immigrant have freedom to contribute his best 
to the welfare of America. As the various races 
have brought their national dishes, customs and 
usages, so let each contribute his peculiar talent and 
accomplishment in art, letters or business, though 
he may be deficient in the knowledge of the English 
language. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 113 

Americanization of the children.— Many a simple, 
illiterate immigrant may turn out to be more loyal 
to America, than the so called cultivated theorists 
who can chatter, parrot-like, good English, but are 
unsound in morals and unprincipled in action. It is 
difficult and in some cases impossible to change the ■ 
habits of the adult. It is different with the young 
and the children. They are open to impressions, 
and the future lies with them. They will all get 
Americanized through education. The public school 
is the melting pot where children of all races are 
being assimilated. Many Greek children who are 
being educated in American schools, answer their 
parents in English who speak to them in Greek. 

The evening schools are of immense value. Both 
men and women are attending evening classes, in 
the public schools, Y. M. C. A. and the various Greek 
societies. 

Y. M. C. A. — The Y. M. C. A. is bringing many 
Greeks into contact with American ways, ideas, cus- 
toms, and moral and spiritual ideals. A great many 
are now joining the Y. M. C. A. in different parts of 
the country. In New York, the 23rd Street Branch 
is becoming a center for foreign born men. A Greek 
branch had 165 Greeks connected with it in 1920 and 
300 in 1921. Special social gatherings are held 
where Greeks and Americans meet, get acquainted 
and discover unexpected qualities and attractions in 
each other. Meetings for Greeks are held, addressed 
by prominent Greeks and Americans. Evening 
classes of various kinds are held. A Greek musician 
gives lessons on the violin, guitar and mandolin. 
Many are interested by assignment to various sub- 
committees. A Greek assists the American Secre- 
taries and their program includes helping the immi- 
grants on landing at Ellis Island, finding them lodg- 
ings and employment and helping them in other 
ways. Some young Greeks room in the Y. M. C. A. 



114 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

buildings. The athletic, recreational, and social fea- 
tures of the Y. M. C. A. and its Bible classes and 
Sunday afternoon gatherings are valuable influences. 

Y. W. 0. A. — The International Institutes of the 
Y. W. C. A. are doing similar work among young 
women. The International Institute, 121 E. 22nd 
Street, New York, has a ''P. A. A.'' (the initials of 
the Greek words meaning patriotism, devotion and 
mutual help), a club for Greek girls, who meet 
monthly for lectures, social gatherings with music, 
and other attractive features, and to give assistance 
to Greek immigrants. There are also Greek branches 
in Lowell, Mass., and San Francisco. Theatres, 
motion pictures, concerts and lectures, trade and 
business relations, and many other points of contact 
between Greeks and Americans in daily life, are con- 
tributing their share in getting the immigrants ac- 
quainted with American life and ideas. 

There are certain other organizations whose pro- 
gram is Americanization, as the Greek American 
League, 56 Pine Street, New York. Its main activity 
consists in an annual dinner thus bringing together 
many prominent Americans and Greeks at a social 
gathering. 

Similar organizations exist in Springfield, Mass., 
Peabody, Mass., Chicago, and other Greek centers. 

Greeks are more and more reading American 
newspapers and periodicals which are all exerting 
great influence in educating and Americanizing them. 

Certain industrial corporations as the Ford works, 
Detroit, Mich., are conducting classes in English and 
civics, with good results. 

I have read of an illiterate Greek condemned to 
eight years' imprisonment, who decided to put into 
good use his term in prison, and learned English and 
got an education. 

Majority clannish. — All the above-mentioned in- 
fluences touch only a section of the Greeks. The 



.1 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 115 

majority are living an insular or clannish life, fre- 
quenting the Greek centers, clubs and cotfee-houses 
and all the time associated with their compatriots 
only. So that they do not learn English and cannot 
get American ideas. 



RESULTS AS REFLECTED IN WAR SERVICE 

Loyal service in war.— The Greeks proved their 
loyalty to the United States and the cause of the 
Allies, by enlisting in great numbers to serve under 
the Stars and Stripes. Some 60,000 thus rendered 
valuable service in the war. Those from Greece 
proper according to an agreement between Greece 
and the United States by service under the American 
flag were counted as under the Greek flag. Others 
were from Turkey, and as such might have claimed 
exemption as enemy aliens. But very few took ad- 
vantage of this opportunity. Proportionately a 
greater number of Greeks were enlisted in the United 
States, as many of them were young men without 
families, and of military age. Many Greeks were 
cited for distinguished service in France. 

Bought Liberty bonds. — Greeks bought exten- 
sively of Liberty and Victory bonds. According to 
figures published in the Greek press, they bought 
over $30,000,000 worth,' during the third Liberty 
Loan campaign alone. Men, women and even chil- 
dren took a prominent part during all the campaigns, 
selling Liberty Bonds. The clergy, the societies, es- 
pecially the press, did their best in promoting the 
various drives. They also contributed liberally to 
the Eed Cross and other benevolent organizations. 
Many florists, confectioners and others offered their 
proceeds for one or more days, sometimes a whole 
week, to such patriotic and philanthropic causes. 

Greek relief committee. — One of the organizations 
formed to assist war sufferers in Thrace and Asia 



116 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Minor and refugees from those territories in Greece 
and the islands was the Relief Committee for Greeks 
of Asia Minor, with offices at 1 Madison Avenue, 
New York, cooperating with the Near East Relief. 
The contributions came mainly from Greek sources 
and all the appropriations were doubled by the Near 
East Relief and used for Greek relief in regions 
designated by the Greek committee. The clergy, the 
societies and many individuals contributed gener- 
ously. Its receipts, amounting to some $250,000 
were doubled by the Near East Relief, so that 
$500,000 have been spent for the relief of suffering 
Greeks in Asia Minor and elsewhere. 

Services of the committee. — The committee ren- 
dered much valuable service in transmitting money, 
clothing, and other goods from many Greeks in the 
United States to their relatives in Turkey, through 
the Near East Relief, especially during the war when 
there was no other channel to reach Turkey. The 
committee besides its humanitarian work, repre- 
sents an excellent type of Americanization work also. 

Misunderstandings corrected. — This committee 
and its work has helped greatly in breaking down 
prejudices and misconceptions on both sides. The 
Greeks were extremely suspicious of any organiza- 
tion or activities in which missionaries were in- 
volved. When the committee started in 1917, there 
was a great deal of opposition on the part of a num- 
ber of Greeks. But it gradually waned and disap- 
peared and almost all came to appreciate the commit- 
tee and the self-sacrificing work of the relief workers 
among whom there were many missionaries. 
^ There have come many expressions of apprecia- 
tion and letters of thanks from the Greek Patriarch- 
ate, Constantinople, the various bishops, and other 
leading Greeks in Greece and Turkey, both to the 
American and the Greek committee. 

There was also a good deal of misunderstanding 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 117 

on the part of the missionaries regarding the Greeks, 
and American missionaries generally were unfavor- 
ably inclined towards them. Some even thought they 
were obstinate, distant, and unsympathetic. Yet 
those who came into touch with them through the re- 
lief work were impressed so favorably, that some 
became enthusiastic about them. Many Americans 
contributed both money and service to the cause. 
The Greeks know their friends and feel deeply grate- 
ful for such sympathy and helpfulness. Such mu- 
tual acquaintance and cooperation continues on the 
other side too in the actual field of relief activities. 
In July, 1921, the Greek Relief Committee handed 
its work over to the Near East Eelief which con- 
tinues the work. 

Another organization that helped greatly in bring- 
ing Americans and Greeks to better acquaintance 
with and appreciation of each other was the Ameri- 
can Hellenic Society under the Presidency of Dr. 
Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia 
University. Its main object was to bring the Greek 
cause before the American people and enlighten 
them on Greek questions, but it did a great deal in 
winning the Greeks to American ideals and institu- 
tions. The Society published several books and 
booklets on Greek affairs, especially the political 
situation. It was discontinued November 14, 1920. 

Similarly the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A. and the 
Y. W. C. A. have done much to impress on the immi- 
grant as well as the people in Greece and Asia Minor 
the true ideals of Americanism. They have shown 
the best in America and have attracted the love and 
admiration of all towards America and the Ameri- 
can people. 

Many who are unable to utter a word in English 
are truly devoted to American ideals as a result of 
the varied activities of the above mentioned organi- 
zations. 



Chapter IV 
THE GREEKS IN AMERICA (Continued) 

GKEEK CHURCHES 

Almost all the Greeks in America, with the ex- 
ception of a few Protestants and Catholics, belong 
to the Greek Orthodox Church ; even the indifferent 
and the non-churchgoers regarding themselves as 
Greek church people. 

Greek communities. — We have already spoken 
(in Chapter II) of the Greek community organiza- 
tion. The directors are usually laymen who control 
the affairs of their group. The position of the priest 
in a community until 1918 was somewhat irregular 
and not well defined. Generally he was at the mercy 
of the trustees who invited and dismissed him as 
they pleased. He was free in the performance of 
religious rites and ceremonies, and was responsible 
to his religious superiors in Greece or Constanti- 
nople. 

Supervision of the churches. — The Ecumenical 
Patriarchate in Constantinople, constituting the 
highest authority in the Greek church, claimed and 
had the right of founding and supervising churches 
in America. It transferred, however, this right to 
the Holy Synod of Greece in 1908. Until recently, 
the whole matter of the organization and supervision 
of the Greek churches was ill-defined and neglected 
and Congregationalism reigned supreme in an epis- 
copal church. Individuals organized a community, 
owned property and found a priest to carry on the 
religious services, as independent bodies. Some 
secured their priests through the patriarchate and 

118 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 119 

others from the Synod of Greece. There have been 
cases of individuals unconnected with either, and 
without proper credentials of ordination, acting as 
priests, in isolated colonies or communities. 

Theoretically all the Greeks in a given locality con- 
stitute the Greek community there. In recent years, 
however, there has been laid down a rule, that only 
those who pay certain yearly dues are regarded as 
members and have the right to vote and be elected 
to an office in the community. 

Colonies. — There are at present some 150 com- 
munities in the United States and Canada which are 
organized with churches or halls owned or rented. 
There are numerous unorganized Greek colonies 
scattered throughout the United States and Canada. 
Priests from the neighboring community visit them 
occasionally to perform marriages, baptisms and 
other ceremonies, often using the local Episcopal 
church. There are four communities in Manhattan, 
one in Brooklyn, N.Y. ; one in Newark, N.J. ; one in 
"West Orange, N.J. There are colonies in Elizabeth, 
Perth Amboy, Trenton, Hoboken, Jersey City, N.J. ; 
Poughkeepsie, Yonkers, Albany, Troy, and New- 
burgh, N.Y., and in many other centers and states. 

Organization of the churches. — In 1918 Arch- 
bishop Meletios Metaxakis, then Metropolitan of 
Athens and Primate of Greece, accompanied ^ by 
other prominent ecclesiastics, visited the United 
States. Plans were then laid down for the organiza- 
tion and systematization of the church work in 
America. The plan provided for an archbishop, 
probably with seat at Washington, D.C., and two or 
three bishops with New York, Chicago, Lowell or 
San Francisco as their respective seats. There were 
financial and other difficulties in carrying it out, 
the main one being how to harmonize the right of 
jurisdiction and administration by the church of 
Greece, an established and state church, over congre- 



120 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

gations constituted as corporate bodies and holding 
property in accordance with the laws of the United 
States. Ultimately there will doubtless be an Inde- 
pendent Greek Orthodox Church of America as in 
various patriarchates, and the national churches of 
Greece, Rumania, etc. 

Pending further settlement of the organization of 
the churches. Archbishop Meletios left Bishop Alex- 
ander Eodostolou as delegate of the Holy Synod of 
Greece, to supervise the Greek churches in Aonerica. 
The office of the delegation is at 140 E. 72nd Street, 
New York. He has visited various Greek communi- 
ties and is completing plans for the better organiza- 
tion of the work. 

The priests of the churches at New York under the 
presidency of Bishop Eodostolou constitute the 
sacred court which acts in all cases of discipline, di- 
vorce, etc. 

Politics and churches. — ^Politics continue to have 
their factional influence even in ecclesiastical mat- 
ters. The leaders of the Royalists, or the Constan- 
tine Party, characterized the delegation as Venizelist 
and tried to divide the churches on political grounds. 
In general, however the communities were united in 
acknowledging and respecting the authority of the 
delegation, in spite of the political views of the in- 
dividuals, priests, or layman until June, 1921. The 
fall of Venizelos on Nov. 14, 1920 had far reach- 
ing consequences in the church both in Greece 
and America. The revolutionary government of 
Venizelos started at Salonica in 1917. The Holy 
Synod of Greece under the presidency of Metropoli- 
tan Theocletos, at the instigation of the Court ana- 
thematized Venizelos, not for any spiritual offense 
or heresy but to discredit him and his act in the eyes 
of the people. After the exile of Constantine to 
Switzerland, Venizelos returned to Athens. A spe- 
cial ecclesiastical council of bishops, including those 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 121 

of the new Grecian territories, under the presidency 
of archbishop Gennadios, Metropolitan of Salonica, 
found Theocletos and some of his associates guilty 
in the matter of the anathema, unfrocked them and 
sent them to monasteries in Crete and elsewhere. 
Later Archbishop Meletios Metaxakis, Metropolitan 
of Kition, Cyprus, a Cretan, was called to Athens 
as Metropolitan and Primate of Greece. On Veni- 
zelos' fall (Nov. 1920) the new Greek Government 
asked Archbishop Meletios to vacate his palace and 
seat claiming his appointment was null and void. 
He yielded, protesting against the interference of the 
state in affairs of the church, and claiming to be the 
lawful Metropolitan of Athens. The government re- 
stored Theocletos to the Metropolitan throne, ignor- 
ing the former action of the ecclesiastical council. 
Bishop Alexander Eodostolou in America refused to 
recognize the authority of the Synod and Metropoli- 
tan, as they were still under ecclesiastical discipline. 
The Synod charged him with disloyalty and sum- 
moned him to Greece. He refused to obey, saying 
he would acknowledge fealty only to the Patriarch 
of Constantinople, the highest authority in the 
church. The Synod then appointed Germanos Tro- 
janos, bishop of Sparta and Monemvasia, as Synodi- 
cal Exarch in North and South America. He 
reached New York in June, 1921. His office is at 12 
W. 76th Street, New York City. A part of the 
priests and communities acknowledge Rodostolou 
and a part Trojanos as bishop. Each claims a 
majority. In December, 1921 a majority acknowl- 
edged Bishop Rodostolou. The breach widens, 
churches and communities are divided and the effect 
is depressing on the spiritual life of the church. In 
April, 1921, Archbishop Meletios came to America. 
He supported Rodostolou. The patriarchate at Con- 
stantinople recognized him as head of the^ Greek 
Church in America and refused to recognize the 



122 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Synod in Greece. In November, 1921, Meletios was 
elected Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumeni- 
cal Patriarch. The Eoyalists or Constantinists re- 
fuse to recognize the election as legal. The Venizel- 
ists insist it was the most regular patriarchal elec- 
tion in years, and whatever dissensions there were 
among the bishops, the people of Constantinople 
were unanimous. The Synod of Greece besides re- 
fusing recognition of Meletios charged him with 
usurpation of the Metropolitan throne of Athens, 
and starting schism in the churches in America. He 
was tried in his absence and condemned to be un- 
frocked and shut up in a monastery in Zanta. Mele- 
tios regards his condemnation as a political move by 
the Court and that the Synod was illegally composed 
of unfrocked clergymen. It is most unfortunate that 
the affairs of the Greek Church and State are in 
such turmoil. Both suffer. All the dissensions are 
probably symptomatic of a real need of the Greek 
people — regeneration. As Koraes, one of the mod- 
ern Greece's great leaders said, *' Greeks will not 
become a great nation until they become regenerate 
in Christ Jesus.'* 

One of the difficulties in the administration of the 
Greek churches is the collision of the Episcopal rule 
with the rights of the congregations in the choice of 
their priests. The bishop appoints, or removes the 
priests, and his decision is final, which often creates 
dissension. 

Priests. — Some of the priests in America are 
graduates of the University of Athens, or the Theo- 
logical School of the patriarchate at the Island of 
Halki, near Constantinople. But most of them are 
trained for the priesthood under some bishop or 
priest. Preaching among the Greeks is usually ver- 
bose, full of rhetoric, fine expressions and phrases, 
but devoid of variety or depth of thought. Or it 
may deal with abstruse dogmatic topics, illustrating 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 123 

the fondness of the Greek mind, for theoretical and 
philosophical questions. Consequently both ideas 
and diction are often above the heads of the audi- 
once. There are among them men of ability, culture 
and spiritual power with simplicity of faith. But 
unfortunately, there are also men full of greed and 
worldliness, using the office of priest simply as a 
means of material gain. Some are even disbelievers 
or sceptics and yet they defend the minutest details 
of the ceremonials of the church as a national insti- 
tution. Others are well informed and in full sym- 
pathy with the reform movement in the Greek 
church. They are very friendly to Protestant minis- 
ters, organizations and churches. They use oppor- 
tunities to attend services and other meetings. They 
take notes from the sermons and preach them to 
their people, and are studying the various vital 
problems and questions in the churches. A number 
of them are members of the clergy club, in New York. 
The Greek priests especially in large cities are very 
busy. In addition to the regular services of the 
church, there are many calls for baptism, funerals, 
marriages, visitation of the sick for prayer and unc- 
tion and communion to the dying. 

Salaries. — The priests in Greece and Turkey are 
underpaid and are poor in general. But those in the 
United States are well paid. In addition to a salary 
they get fees for the various rites they perform, e. g., 
weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc., and the fee is 
elastic, left to the discretion and social standing of 
the giver. It is customary while the guests con- 
gratulate the bride and bridegroom at the end of the 
marriage service for them all to place contributions 
in a plate. This collection goes to the priest. A 
priest in the Middle West in 1918 sent $140 as his 
contribution to the Greek Eelief Committee, repre- 
senting half of the collection at the first wedding he 
performed in his new charge. 



124 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Dress. — Almost all the clergymen of the Greek 
church in America have adopted clerical clothes and 
collar and trim the beard and hair. In Greece they 
wear long robes with loose sleeves, preacher's high 
hat, and have long hair and beards, in accordance 
with the Nazarite rule in the Old Testament. 

During the church services and ceremonies they 
put on the usual gorgeous ecclesiastical vestments as 
in Greece, and all the ritual is carried on as pre- 
scribed in the church symbolics. 

Greeks are very religious like the Athenians of 
PauPs time, and deeply devoted and loyal to their 
church. 

In some families icons (pictures of Christ or the 
saints) are kept in a room facing the east, and can- 
dles are lighted before them. There is a household 
altar. 

I translated, some time ago, a letter from a Greek 
in the West to an Armenian goldsmith in New York, 
asking for an icon of St. George, because he was 
alone and far from Greek communities and churches 
and wanted to have it in his room as a reminder of 
his religion. 

Church attendance. — Some churches are well at- 
tended all the year round, and at Easter and certain 
other festival seasons, especially during Holy Week, 
all churches are crowded. But generally attendance 
on other occasions is small. I asked a priest in the 
Middle West if he preached to his people. His re- 
ply was "They do not come to the services. Every 
Sunday there are some 10-15 persons, and almost 
the same set of people every week, what is the use 
of preaching to them.'' And yet there was a strong 
Greek community in the city of at least 1,000. In 
another city I attended a service on Sunday morning 
in which there were some 25-30 persons present, out 
of a Greek population of 700-800. This was in sum- 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 125 

mer. But I was told it is not much better in winter. 
The same is true of many other communities. 

Worldliness. — This is partly due to religious in- 
difference and worldliness of the people, and partly, 
probably with a good many, to the rush and tear of 
American life. Worldliness dominates the people 
and things spiritual recede into the background. All 
work hard and get tired on week days, and are anx- 
ious to rest physically on Sundays, so they get up 
late and spend the rest of the day in outings, visit- 
ing and amusement. Even those who attend the 
morning church service spend the rest of the day in 
pleasure. Sunday observance among the Greeks 
everywhere is the continental and not the Puritan 
method. Even church attendance with a good many 
is perfunctory, consisting of a brief time at the mass, 
lighting a candle before the icon and making the 
sign of the cross. Many indulge in conversation dur- 
ing the services. 

America has had influence in modifying certain 
religious practices among the Greeks. Thus fasting 
is almost abandoned, except on certain days during 
Lent and that in a limited circle, whereas in the old 
country and in the rural regions they are more strict, 
especially women. The fast days are 50 days before 
Easter; 40 days before Christmas; 15 days in Au- 
gust before the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, 
and the Fast of the Apostles in June, the number of 
days varying, according to the proximity of Easter 
which falls between March 23rd and April 24th. 
Wednesdays and Fridays, throughout the year are 
also fast days. Fasting is abstinence from meat and 
following a vegetarian diet, even butter, milk and 
eggs are not allowed. Fish and olive oil are allowed, 
but not during Lent, excepting certain festivals. 
But human ingenuity in the art of cooking has in- 
vented very appetizing dishes especially with sea- 



126 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

food, so that the Lent diet is soinetimes most attrac- 
tive and tempting. 

Julian Calendar observed. — The Greek Church 
officially follows the Julian Calendar which is 13 
days behind the Gregorian Calendar. Thus Christ- 
mas is on the 25th of December, but 13 days later 
than the American Christmas, i. e., January 7th. 
New Yearns day is January 1st, i. e., January 14th. 
But the people use in business and all other transac- 
tions the Gregorian Calendar. Many observe even 
Christmas as a social occasion with the rest of the 
country, thus having a double Christmas. The same 
is truo to some extent with New Year and Easter. 

Pious Orthodox Greeks partake of communion 
four times a year, during the four fast seasons. 
Confession precedes the communion. But many 
commune only once a year, usually, during Lent. 
Only a minority of the Greeks in America go to con- 
fession and communion. 

A number of liberal and evangelically inclined 
priests emphasized the utility and effectiveness of 
the confession. One said he utilizes it as an oppor- 
tunity to instruct, guide, admonish and exhort the 
people in the paths of truth and righteousness. 

Many Greeks partake of communion on their death 
bed. This is partly due i:o the belief that they would 
in this way be cleansed of all their sins and thus en- 
ter ** Paradise,'' and partly to the wish that the 
pious act might help the healing and the recovery of 
the patient. Greek priests often go long distances 
to render this last service to the dying. 

Posture at prayer. — There are only a limited num- 
ber of seats in the Greek churches, but even these can 
be used only during the singing of certain hymns. 
Almost all stand during the entire service. Kneel- 
ing is resorted to only once a year, on the Day of 
Pentecost. But in America seats are being provided 
at some churches. Some communities have bought 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 127 

Protestant churches, with seats and galleries and 
they are kept intact, as they are found very conven- 
ient. 

In Greece and Turkey men and women use sepa- 
rate sections of the church during the services. In 
America they are getting somewhat mixed and stand 
together in some churches. Unfortunately the 
Greeks do not have the Protestant custom of family 
seats at the church where parents and children at- 
tend services together. Boys may be with the father, 
and girls with the mother. 

As to the influence of the Greek churches here, a 
few of the answers to the questionnaire from differ- 
ent parts of the country follow: 

*'The influence is very small, excepting in family 
circles ;^^ ^* Beneficial and uplifting;'' '^The best;" 
^^ Little;" *^In religious matters the Greek adheres 
to his church;" ^^Not very strong;" ^'The church is 
keeping the Greeks in their Christian religion;" 
^'Eather small, because of the general lack of spirit- 
uality, and the Greeks are not interested in reli- 
gion." 

From the above and other answers it becomes evi- 
dent that the Greeks adhere to their church in spite 
of their indifference, or non-attendance on its serv- 
ices. The main difficulty, however, is the lack of 
spiritual power. Keligion is usually limited to the 
perfunctory performance of ritual or is confined to 
certain seasons. 

Need of spiritual power. — The greatest need is 
spiritual vitality to translate the vital principles into 
daily life. Of course, this is the need of all Chris- 
tendom. Judged by the strict standards of Gospel 
principles, most of them are but poor Christians, 
as one of the leading Orthodox Greeks in high posi- 
tion said, *4n the sense of Apostolic Christianity, 
we are superstitious, narrow-minded, opposed to all 
progress, and change." 



128 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Need of Pastoral visitation. — Pastoral visitation 
is one of the greatest needs among the Greeks. 
Many are *'like flocks without a shepherd.'' Nomi- 
nally all Greeks are Christians. Large numbers of 
young men in the stores, restaurants, factories and 
other places are sorely neglected. There is scarcely 
any one looking after their spiritual welfare. Many 
priests are either unable to do it, or are too busy 
with their levitical functions. 

Forms of religious break-up. — ^Apparently there 
is no irreligious movement among the Greeks, no 
open atheists, nor free thinkers. Theoretically most 
of them, if not all, respect religion. As all Ameri- 
cans, good or bad, are citizens, so all Greek believers 
or unbelievers, warm or indifferent, church-goers or 
not, are reckoned, and they regard themselves as 
members of the Greek church, excepting the Protest- 
ants and Roman Catholics, whose Hellenism or patrio- 
tism is questioned by the zealots, although facts have 
shown repeatedly and conclusively that patriotism 
is not the monopoly of the Orthodox. Americans 
will state what they profess, believe or disbelieve; 
will say they are not Christians, do not profess to 
belong to any church, but Greek materialists or ag- 
nostics may ridicule all religion and still defend the 
practice and usages of their church as a national 
institution. This peculiar combination of religion 
and patriotism pervades and influences the whole 
Greek life. 

Practical unbelief. — There are, however, many 
practical unbelievers, who live as if there were no 
God, the whole of whose religion consists in an occa- 
sional outward conformity to some religious cere- 
mony or a visit to the church at Easter. 

As in Greece, here in America, too, the educated 
classes, especially students, are occupied with philo- 
sophical and metaphysical problems. They have 
their doubts, difficulties, tendencies to materialism 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 129 

or agnosticism, but almost all cling to the church, 
and if questioned, they will profess to belong to the 
Greek church. 

This may be due partly to patriotic feeling, as al- 
ready mentioned, and partly to moral cowardice or 
hypocrisy. It is also due to superficiality of thought 
and a lack of real conviction. In discussing the sub- 
ject with a prominent college graduate, a Greek of 
intellectual power and moral principles he expressed 
his regret that there was not more free thought 
among the Greeks. ' ' There is too much stagnation, ' ' 
he stated, ^'and indifference to truth; besides, our 
people are very intoleran' and opposed to all change 
and progress. They are under the spell of the past 
and strongly devoted to medieval ideas and forms." 
This good gentleman, however, used ^^free thought" 
in its good sense, as a spirit of inquiry and open- 
mindedness which is the motive power to all prog- 
ress. 

Difficulties of liberal leaders. — This spirit of in- 
tolerance or opposition to change is well illustrated 
in the case of the leaders, evangelically inclined and 
who preach spiritual and pure Gospel principles. 
Such are often attacked and criticized by the con- 
servatives as leaning to Protestantism and are sus- 
pected of heresy. Hence some among them feel 
obliged to take up in their sermons topics of decid- 
edly Greek Orthodox type, e. g., icons, saints, fasts, 
effectiveness of the ritual, and they may even attack 
Protestants and criticize their teaching and prac- 
tices as a means of self-defence and thus secure their 
own safety and liberty to continue in their work of 
preaching. There is needed moral heroism ; men of 
the type of Luther, who can proclaim their convic- 
tions and are not afraid to face the consequences. 

2. Forms of religious realignment. — There is 
scarcely any extra-church religious movement 
among the Greeks. 



130 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

There are Greek Protestant immigrants in vari- 
ous parts of the United States who have joined some 
one of the Protestant denominations or attend serv- 
ices of the Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, 
Baptist, Disciple, Episcopal or some other church. 
In addition to the English service in some American 
church, some attend and help the Greek Protestant 
churches in case there is one in the place of their 
residence. 

Worldly Protestants. — Those Protestant Greeks 
who fail to join a church, American or Greek, or who 
keep aloof from church influence grow cold and in- 
different, or even irreligious. A Greek Protestant 
pastor of wide experiences among the Greeks both 
Protestant and Orthodox, said, * ' The indifferent Pro- 
testants get worse than the indifferent Orthodox. 
The latter retain at least certain forms as an icon or 
the sign of the cross, and keep up an appearance of 
religion in spite of coldness to the church ; the Pro- 
testants when far from church influences, lose all 
form and appearance and grow colder and more in- 
different." 

Value of the ritual. — ^Ritualism, it would seem, 
then has a legitimate place in the religious life of 
the individual and institutions, and observances have 
a retentive influence. Once learned, they cannot 
easily be forgotten or given up. Through centuries 
of ignorance and oppression under Turkish tyranny, 
the Oriental Christians have clung to the external 
forms of their churches and kept up the name of 
Christianity, with little preaching, teaching or study 
of the Scripture. Had it not been for these forms, 
the very name of Christianity might have been wiped 
out. 

Influences of the Passover and the ritual. — As il- 
lustrating the power of ceremonial there is the Pass- 
over in Jewish history. It is said it was the 
Passover, more than anything else, that kept the 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 131 

Jews together through all the vicissitudes of exile, 
climate, country, language, etc., as a distinct and 
separate race. They may speak different languages, 
live in different countries, neglect the study of their 
Scriptures and attendance of synagogue, but almost 
all observe the Passover. Protestantism as preached 
to the Oriental Christians depreciated, even de- 
nounced ritual, and appealed rather to the intellect. 
Protestant services were rather a series of lectures 
and addresses fitted to mature minds. Even the de- 
votional portions of the service were regarded as 
secondary. The immature or negligent, deprived 
of the assistance of ritual, fell away easily from the 
faith. 

Greeks attending Protestant churches. — There 
are a great many Greeks who profess to belong to 
the Greek Orthodox Church who attend pretty regu- 
larly the services of some Protestant denomination. 
One wrote me from Eaton Rapids that there is no 
Greek church there, and he attends a Methodist 
church. One of the oldest and most prominent 
leaders who avails himself of every opportunity to 
attack Protestants, especially missionaries, told me 
he did not attend any Greek church, but usually went 
to some Protestant Episcopal Church, ^'because'' he 
said ^^the Protestant Episcopal Church does not at- 
tempt to proselytize the Greeks." One family at- 
tends regularly a Methodist Church in New York. 
The wife had gone by chance or curiosity and was 
so impressed with the simplicity and spirituality of 
the service that she is attending regularly and her 
children attend the Sunday school. There are 
many more Greeks attending Protestant Episcopal 
Churches and a great many send their children to 
their Sunday schools. 

It is impossible to learn the number of those who 
attend Protestant Churches. 

There are many within the fold of the Greek 



132 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

church who are dissatisfied with the actual condi- 
tions in the church, who are not indifferent to re- 
ligion, though they seldom attend any services, but 
hope there will some day be a change and their 
church will become up-to-date and a greater spiritual 
power and center of attraction to all. 

Moral courage. — But they hesitate to take a de- 
cided stand because they fear the charge of unpa- 
triotism, owing to the close connection of the church 
and nationality in the past. They lack the moral 
courage to stand for their convictions and face the 
consequences. They suspect and fear each other. 
They hesitate to speak in the presence of others,^ 
but express themselves freely when alone. This is 
true both of the clergy and the laity. . 

Illustrations. — One liberal priest said to a col- 
league, ^'It is high time that we all speak out and 
not hide our light. ' ' One bright young college grad- 
uate, speaking in the presence of other Greek young 
men, praised the Greek Church and, ^^our Orthodox 
Eeligion," attacked and condemned the missionaries 
as proselytizers. But later when alone said he was 
for the evangelical truth and attended Protestant 
services more than Greek. 

Other young men, when together, speak as loyal 
sons of the Greek Church, but wnen alone, profess 
their real conviction as Protestants. These are typi- 
cal of countless other instances. 

Eeforms are needed and reforms require reform- 
ers with the ardor and daring of John Chrysostom, 
Ambrose of Milan, Luther and other reformers, who 
dared to speak the truth even though they incurred 
the wrath of an emperor or an empress, and did 
not hesitate to go to exile, imprisonment and death. 

FOKMS OF KELIGIOUS APPKOACH 

There is little effective work being done by the 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 133 

Protestant churches exclusively among the Greeks. 
The need is extremely great, and the field scarcely 
touched. There is no social settlement, institu- 
tional church or evangelism exclusively for the 
Greeks. ^ They get the benefit of the general services 
in English in factories, open-air meetings, and other 
methods of evangelism. Settlements such as Hull 
House, Chicago, are coming into touch with Greeks 
as well as other races. The Protestant Episcopal 
Church welcomes the Greeks to the facilities, privi- 
leges and social advantages of their church houses, 
as well as to its church services. Doubtless other 
churches would give the same welcome. But the 
Greek responds more readily to the Protestant 
Episcopal call. 



EVANGELICAL WORK AMONG THE GREEKS BY 
PROTESTANT CHURCHES 

The Congregational churches first took a special 
interest in the Greeks in America and started mis- 
sionary work among them. The missions in the 
Near East, and so the Greek field, is under the 
American Board, consequently Greek Protestant 
immigrants usually affiliate with the Congregational 
churches. The Massachusetts Home Missionary So- 
ciety of the Congregational churches has had for 
years Greek evangelical work in Boston, Lowell, and 
Haverhill, Mass. 

In general the other Protestant denominations 
assume that the Greek field belongs to the Congre- 
gationalists, and they in turn confess they are not in 
a position to carry the work alone without the help 
of other denominations. 

The Protestant Episcopalians are against any 
Protestant work among the Greeks. They are very 
friendly and ever ready to help the Greeks to help 
themselves. They loan them churches, chapels and 



134 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

halls, and bishops, clergymen and laymen are sym- 
pathetic and helpful. 

The Methodists have missions in Lowell, Mass., 
where Sunday and week day services are carried on. 

The Presbyterian Church comes into touch with 
the Greeks through their educational work in Syria 
and evangelical work in Greece was for a while 
under the Southern Presbyterian Board. 

Bott Presbyterians and Baptists conducted work 
for Greeks in New York City for a time but no 
lasting results were achieved. Work was discon- 
tinued by Baptists because the City Missions Council 
of New. York advised that in the interest of comity 
evangelical work for Greeks be left to the Congrega- 
tionalists. 

The main Greek evangelical churches in the 
United States are in Lowell, Mass. ; Boston, Mass. ; 
and Chicago, 111. 

The work in Boston and Lowell was started by 
Rev. and Mrs. S. Vaitsis. Both worked with great 
devotion for years, helping the poor and the sick, 
conducting English classes, acting as Employment 
Bureau, and advising the immigrants in many ways, 
and preaching and teaching the Gospel on Sunday 
and weekdays. 

There was great opposition, but in spite of all 
fanaticism and bitterness on the part of some, prom- 
inent Orthodox Greeks testify that they worked as 
good Samaritans and did much good in many ways. 
*^If you want to see a good pastor and a true shep- 
herd of his people go to that Protestant, Mr. 
Vaitsis," said several Greeks. He has the largest 
Greek printing press in New England. He edits a 
religious monthly, Aletheia (Truth), and a news- 
paper, Angeliaforos {Messenger). After working 
for years at both Lowell and Boston, Mr. Vaitsis 
left Boston, in 1914, confining himself to Lowell 
where he works independently. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 135 

0. Tokas. — Rev. C. Tokas is in charge of the work 
in Boston, under the Massachusetts Home Mission- 
ary Society. The services are conducted at the 
chapel of the Park Place Congregational Church. 
Mr. Tokas gives prominence to social activities and 
makes the church a social center where the Ortho- 
dox and Protestants may meet for social occasions 
under true Christian influence at all times. He 
studied at the University of Athens and the Chicago 
Theological Seminary. He was in charge of the 
Greek Evangelical Church, Athens, Greece, for 
years, before coming to Boston. 

0. T. Papadopoulos. — The work in Chicago was 
started by Rev. C. T. Papadopoulos, a graduate of 
Anatolia College and the Theological Seminary, 
Marsovan, Asia Minor, and pastor of several Greek 
Evangelical Churches in Asia Minor, before coming 
to Chicago. 

He had great opposition at first, but finally things 
quieted down. He conducted Sunday and weekday 
services and Sunday school. His home was a social 
center where many met for song services on Sun- 
day evenings. He edited the monthy Elpis (Hope). 
He printed several tracts. He worked indepen- 
dently. The Chicago Tract Society was of much 
assistance to his work. He died in 1921. The church 
is looking for a successor. 

Haverhill, Mass., Canton, Ohio. — There was work 
for a time at Haverhill, Mass., and Canton, Ohio, 
but for lack of support and workers, was discontin- 
ued. There are many Protestant young men from 
the Black Sea region in Canton and Akron, Ohio, 
and elsewhere in Ohio and other States. They all 
need the counseling and guiding power of the Gos- 
pel, and there ought to be found some way to pro- 
vide them with it. 

The Russellites. — Groups of young men meet at 
different centers at New York and elsewhere to 



1S6 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

study the Scripture with Eussellite interpretation. 
They call themselves '* Students of the Sacred 
Scriptures. '^ They publish various tracts, leaflets 
and other literature translated from English to 
Greek. Certain groups issue multigraphed weekly 
leaflets. Among them are many workers at shoe- 
shine parlors, lunch rooms, etc. 

LITEKATURE 

Religious literature in Greek. — ino secular or re- 
ligious newspapers or periodicals are being issued 
by any American church in Greek or for the Greeks. 
The existing Greek papers, Atlantis and the iVa- 
iional Herald of New York, often contain religious 
articles, especially on Sunday and special occasions. 
During Lent, the Holy Week passages of the Gos- 
pel, read in the churches, are printed and explained. 

I have already mentioned Aletheia (Truth) and 
'Angeliaforos (Messenger) , edited by Eev. S. Vait- 
sis, Lowell, Mass., and Elpis (Hope), edited by Rev. 
C. T. Papadopoulos, Chicago, 111. All have a limited 
circulation, mainly among the Protestant Greeks, 
though a good many Orthodox also get them. They 
are handicapped in their work by opposition of the 
Greek press. 

There is a religious monthly. Religious Echo, until 
recently edited by Rev. H. Panagopoulos, Milwau- 
kee, Wis. It dealt with Greek dogmatics, and con- 
troversial matters and had a limited circulation. 
The editor having left for Greece, Rev. C. H. Dem- 
etry of Chicago, 111., is the new editor. He is of a 
liberal and enlightened mind. 

Other periodicals. — Religious periodicals pub- 
lished in Greece or Constantinople come to America, 
but are taken only by a very few. Other publica- 
tions are National B,enaissance (Illustrated Month- 
ly), Rev. D. Callimahos, editor, Brooklyn, N. Y., 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 137 

and Archbishop Meletios' Ecclesiastical Keryx, of 
New York, edited and published by St. Athanasias' 
Theological Seminary. 

Others are: Ecclesiastihi Alitheia (Ecclesiastical 
Truth), organ of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 
Phanar, Constantinople; Saint Polycarpos, edited 
by Rt. Eev. Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Smyrna, 
and some others. 

Religious in secular press.— The National Her- 
ald and Atlantis, besides keeping in stock various 
religious books published in Greece or Constantino- 
ple, have published several volumes on religious top- 
ics, mostly in the form of prayer books, but there is 
nothing similar to the edifying, stimulating, spirit- 
ual, evangelical literature of America. 

Atlantis has a new edition of the New Testament, 
as published by the Greek Patriarchate, Constan- 
tinople. 

Eeligious and other books are on sale at other 
Greek book stores in all the principal Greek cen- 
ters in United States. 

The American Bible Society and the New York 
Bible Society, provide the Scriptures in the Old and 
New Testament in modern Greek; in whole or parts. 
They have also the New Testament in the original 
and the Septuagint. The Greek Protestant pastors 
and various other religious workers help circulate 
these Scriptures. 

Tracts. — The Chicago and the New York Tract 
Societies have published a number of tracts in mod- 
ern Greek. Many more were published by the 
Greek Evangelical Church at Athens, Greece, while 
Dr. N. D. Kalopothakes was living. Among them 
are two of the type of catechism, "Milk for the 
Children" and "Bread for the Children,'' both 
translated from the English. 

A catechism and many leaflets have been pub- 
lished by Dr. X. Moschou of Smyrna. 



138 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

** Helping Hand" series. — ^Under the patronage of 
Queen Olga of Greece, while King George lived, 
there was published a series of leaflets under the 
heading ' ' Helping Hand. ' ' Some of them were orig- 
inal, but many were mostly translations from the 
English, adapted to Greek needs. They would prove 
useful anywhere. I had circulated many copies 
while in Turkey, and they were welcome everywhere 
as coming from Greek Orthodox sources. Among 
them was Drummond's **The Greatest Thing in the 
World." 

The missionaries in Constantinople had published 
a great many leaflets and books in Greek and in 
Greco-Turkish, i.e., Turkish written with Greek 
characters. Copies of all these publications have 
found their way to America. 

New literature needed. — ^Doubtless there can be 
made a selection from the leaflets and tracts already 
published, that would be interesting, useful and help- 
ful to the present generation. But most of them are 
adapted to another generation. At any rate not to 
this. There is great need of fresh material dealing 
with living questions and problems of the day, the 
eternal principles and truths of the Kingdom of 
God. 

Stories might be used very appropriately to best 
advantage. People are addicted to fiction and plays. 
This style of writing might well be utilized. Sugges- 
tive, catching writing in attractive style would be 
very useful. 

Besides the material, the style of most of the 
tracts already published is against their usefukiess. 



Chapter V 
THE GREEKS IN AMERICA (Continued) 

SPECIAL PEOBLEMS 

(a) Leadership of Greek Churches 

American trained leaders needed.— Most of the 

Greek priests and other church leaders are trained 
and educated in Greece or Turkey. Greeks need 
church leaders trained in American ways, ideas and 
colleges and theological seminaries. Such men 
would be of immense value in reviving the Greek 
church and the nation. There are one or two of the 
higher clergy in the Near East who were trained in 
England ; they are now among the foremost leaders 
with great power and influence in the life of the 
church and nation. 

American trained men would be of great influ- 
ence both in the United States and the Near East, 
as some may go back to the old country and may 
occupy prominent positions in training the candi- 
dates for the clergy as well as in the general work 
of the church. 

Before the war, leading Greek theologians went 
to Germany for advanced studies. The tendency is 
at present to English-speaking institutions. Amer- 
ica may draw a great many more in the future. 

Greek- American theological schools. — A number 
of young men are taking courses in American the- 
ological seminaries. Some are Protestants and are 
looking forward to join the Protestant ministry 
either in America or Greece. They may work in 
American churches, as some are doing already. 

139 



140 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Others profess to belong to the Greek church and 
are planning to work in their church. More than 
anything else, well-trained men will hasten the re- 
vival and reform in this old historic church and 
make it a power in the Kingdom of God, both in 
America and elsewhere. 

Armenian Bishop of Smyrna. — An Armenian, the 
son of a Protestant pastor in Turkey, who studied 
in prominent theological schools in the United 
States, conceived the idea of serving Christ in the 
old historic Armenian (Gregorian) Church. He 
joined that body, was ordained a priest and was for 
a time Assistant Bishop of Smyrna, preaching to 
vast congregations witli much power and influence. 
He says that he is preaching in the Armenian 
church, the same Gospel messages that he used to 
give the Americans while he studied in the seminary. 
There are opportunities in the Greek church for such 
men and messages. 

Liberal priests. — Some of the priests in the United 
States in touch with Americans improve their op- 
portunities by attending classes in the Theological 
Seminaries, church services, club meetings or lec- 
tures. Such are very progressive and are leading 
their people to progressiveness. They also serve as 
links qf connection and friendship between the 
Greek and Protestant Churches. 

American workers among the Greeks. — ^Ameri- 
cans, trained in the Greek language, acquainted with 
Greek history, ideas and customs, life and ideals, 
would be of great service and a great blessing to the 
Greek people. No outsider can work among a peo- 
ple while keeping aloof from them as foreigners, or 
occasionally condescending to keep company with 
them. That was not Christ's me':hod. The success- 
ful worker has to identify himself with the people 
among whom he works. He should be as one of 
them. He has to follow Christ's example in draw- 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 141 

ing men unto himself. Illustrations are numerous. 
The Y. M. C, A. men in Greece and in the Greek 
work in the United States are held in the highest 
esteem by all. American educators in American 
schools in the Near East who approach the Greeks 
sympathetically are loved and admired by their 
Greek students and their friends and relatives. 
The earlier missionaries of the American Board 
in the Near East acquired Greek, Turkish, Arabic, 
or Armenian as the locality required. Later most 
of them learned Turkish because it was understood 
to some extent by all, and also because they desired 
to cultivate work among the Turks. Now in spite 
of success in educational work through the English 
language and through the Turkish in other lines, 
the lack of Greek is a distinct handicap, for the 
Turkish is a foreign language to the Greeks, espe- 
cially the women. The missionary needs the Greek 
to get access to their books, newspapers, songs, and 
national and ecclesiastical ideas. The American 
Board has inaugurated a school of languages in 
Constantinople where missionaries may learn the 
languages of the Near East. Missionaries should 
keep entirely neutral amid the conflicting political 
and ecclesiastical controversies of that great region, 
preaching the Gospel of love and goodwill, and 
pointing all to the same Heavenly Father. The 
churches ought to use the same method. Promi- 
nent preachers and evangelists could do splendid 
work in certain Greek communities, even through 
interpreters. Dr. Theodore Ion writes : ''The Greek 
intellectuals, both clergy and laymen, are anxiously 
awaiting the opportune moment to reform the ex- 
ternal forms of the Orthodox religion and to con- 
form to the present needs of society. The Greek 
clergy has already made great progress and the 
tendency every^^here seems to be to have, as priests, 
graduates of theological schools. In the course 



142 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

of time the higli clergy will also be, I suppose, al- 
lowed to many, which would be an inducement to 
many educated persons to become priests. Many 
of the high clergy study theology either at Athens 
or in Constantinople. 

It will be an excellent plan to encourage Greek 
students of theology to get their training in the the- 
ological seminaries in the United States. 

I think that if many Greeks would study theology 
in the United States and in England the union be- 
tween the Greek church and the various Protestant 
churches will be probable. '' 

(&) Foreign Language Training Schools 

Training schools. — There are no training schools 
for the Greeks. The Protestant leaders g^i their 
training in the American schools. Separate short 
cut courses or schools for foreigners should not be 
encouraged. The foreign-born worker should re- 
ceive the same training, and pass the same tests as 
the American born. 

Plan for a Greek Theological Seminary. — Arch- 
bishop Meletios Metaxakis of Athens, among others, 
spoke of a plan, while visiting the United States in 
1918, to establish a theological seminary in Amer- 
ica which might be the highest institution of theo- 
logical training for the Greeks. In November, 1921, 
the school was inaugurated by Archbishop Meletios 
in the auditorium of the 23rd Street Y. M. C. A. 
with six students. Eecitations take place at the Cen- 
tral Y. M. C. A. in Brooklyn. A building will shortly 
be provided. Greeks of Chicago and elsewhere are 
contributing generously. Venizelos and his wife 
gave the first $1,000. The editor of the Ecclesiastical 
Herald, M. Galanos, is one of the instructors. Prom- 
inent clergymen of New York and Brooklyn are on 
the teaching staff. 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 143 

Need of American teachers in Greek schools. — The 

English language is taught in the Theological School 
at Halki, one of the islands of Marmora, the highest 
theological school of the patriarchate, Constantino- 
ple. A prominent American professor in that insti- 
tution would do a great deal in bringing Greeks and 
Americans into closer relationship in church work 
and would render a great service in the training of 
the Greek clergy. American professors in the Uni- 
versity of Athens would be a great blessing. Ex- 
change professorships between that university and 
American institutions could be arranged with much 
benefit to all concerned. 

(c) The Future of the Greek Church in America 

Greeks will stay. — The Greeks will stay in 
America. Even though many should return to 
Greece, others will come to take their place. 

Greek Orthodox Church in America. — There are 
immense possibilities and a great deal of energy and 
resources in the Greek churches when properly or- 
ganized and utilized. In the course of time it will 
be an autonomous, independent, and in ecclesiastical 
usage '^autocephalous'' church like the churches of 
Greece, Eumania, Serbia, etc., acknowledged by the 
Ecumenical and other patriarchates. It will be the 
Greek Orthodox Church of America. 

All services in Greek. — All the services are at 
present, in Byzantine or ancient Greek, which is 
not really or thoroughly understood by the people. 
A modern up-to-date church must use the language 
spoken and understood by the worshipers. The 
church in Greece will doubtless adopt, in time, the 
modern Greek in its services and hymns. The 
church will not have its prayerbook and hymnbook 
forever closed, and handed down unchanged from 
generation to generation. New poets will rise, new 



144 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

songs will be produced and additions and omissions 
made, as is done in other churches. 

English a unifying force. — But the Greek church 
in America may ultimately adopt the English lan- 
guage for its services as the coming generation will 
have the English as their mother tongue and except- 
ing the newcomers will not understand the Greek. 
Then people of other races and of Orthodox faith, 
the Syrians, Eumanians, Serbians, Albanians, etc., 
may cooperate with the Greeks. In fact they might 
all unite as one and the same denomination. Other 
Americans might join it as one of the prominent de- 
nominations of the country. There are already cases 
of American women marrying Greek husbands and 
thus joining the Greek church. 

There is already a precedent in the Eussian Ortho- 
dox Church which inaugurated services in English 
in the chapel of St. Vladimir ^s Home, 233 East 17th 
Street, New York. The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom 
was said there in the English language. The church 
was open to all Americans. 

The English language will open to them all the 
treasures of English literature, and make them ac- 
quainted with American thought. This, however, 
cannot happen during the present generation, which 
uses Greek, and is not accustomed to English asso- 
ciation of ideas. The Greek language and other 
usages brought from Greece are too sacred to them, 
and cannot be changed easily. Changes will be ef- 
fected more readily with the new generation. 

Greek Protestants. — Protestant Greeks are more 
open to Americanization and assimilation. In fact 
those who attend American churches, especially the 
children and young people are already Americanized. 
The few congregations in existence use the Greek 
language for sermon, prayers and hymns, but Eng- 
lish hymns and anthems are being introduced, at 
least by the Protestant Armenians, whose work is 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 145 

similar to the Greek. Children go to American Sun- 
day schools, unless there is a separate Greek school. 
English is coming in slowly but surely. Greek may 
continue to be used for the sake of the newcomers, 
but for the rising generation English will be the lan- 
guage of the Greek Protestant churches. They will 
become Americans. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

The following recommendations came from vari- 
ous correspondents: 

The chief needs of Greek immigrants are '* sym- 
pathy, friendship and respect from native born 
Americans. Make them feel that America is their 
home. ' ' ^' They need lectures, entertainments, books, 
and close friendship with better class Americans, 
preferably on the non-sectarian basis. The future of 
the Greeks in America is very optimistic.'' 

^^ There are needed schools for adults to teach 
them the English language and open their eyes to 
the higher opportunities this country offers. There 
should be a law requiring adults to learn English. 
All the Greeks in the United States should form local 
committees and through these, should unite into a 
National ^Pankoinotic' Union ('of all the com- 
munities'). There must be a radical reform of the 
church, which is almost dead (the writer is Greek 
Orthodox). If the Greeks can be made to work in 
harmony with one another in all important matters, 
they will be ahead of the other foreign elements in 
the United States. The greatest need now is men. 
Where are they?" 

''Greeks should be obliged to attend school." 
"They should be considered as the best lovers of 
America and be treated accordingly. ' ' 

"The chief need is organization, and the outlook 
for the future is hopeful. ' ' 

' ' Chief need is education. ' ' 



146 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

*^They should learn the English language, should 
absorb American ideas and recognize that Ameri- 
cans are just as good, if not better, than Greeks.'* 

'^The chief need is first to fight gambling, by en- 
forcing a jail sentence upon any proprietor who 
owns and runs a gambling house ; secondly, to estab- 
lish reading rooms and libraries with a little more 
freedom of association in order to attract the class 
that rottens in the coffee-houses. *' *'They need 
*good teaching.' " 

^'They need more education in English, more 
churches and schools. The future is very bright. 
"Within the last ten years, they improved 100 per- 
cent. ' ' 

'■ ^ The chief need is education, again education with 
kindness." "Private teaching in families how to 
live, and also the study of English in general." 
^ ' They should learn their religion by securing good, 
honest and conscientious priests." 

"The chief need — capable leaders and priests who 
shall be real priests of our Lord and not money- 
grabbers, and who know the conditions in America. 
We need teachers who are capable of teaching young 
children of Greek parentage to become good citizens 
of America and an honor to the land of their fathers. 
Under good and unselfish leaders, they will make fine 
citizens. If we could overcome our self-importance 
or egotism, we would be a model people." 

"As to the subject of Americanization and the 
methods employed, I am not in a position to commit 
myself, but I would be glad to see a good deal more 
effort made to help educate the younger generation 
under such supervision, that they will learn the Eng- 
lish language as their vernacular, and be interested 
in American history and Americanism, so that they 
will not be fanatical Greeks, but well developed citi- 
zens, able to use their unbiased judgment for social, 
political and religious matters. I am afraid this part 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 147 

of the work is not receiving as much attention here 
in Detroit as it should/' 

I may sum up and supplement a few of the out- 
standing points made by my correspondents. 

1. — Emphasis is laid everywhere by all on educa- 
tion, 

(a) The most important of all is the education of 
the children. They are the hope of the future. But 
they should receive the same education that the 
American born get. Discrimination is harmful in 
all cases. To give something inferior or to do super- 
ficial work in schools when it concerns the foreign 
born, or to treat as inferiors foreign born pupils has 
a damaging effect. Americans of this type are the 
worst enemies of Americanism. Nothing wins so ef- 
fectively as genuine sympathy and cordiality. 

(b) The adults need education. Evening schools 
should be continued, enlarged, and made more gen- 
eral. More Greek societies should conduct classes 
in English and civics for their members. 

One of my correspondents suggested an excellent 
point — i. e., to teach families or individuals at home. 
Bible women in the Near East used to do excellent 
educational work by visiting homes and teaching the 
illiterate women reading and writing. Such a 
method would produce good results. One denomina- 
tional board in New York supports Christian women 
teachers, who go into homes where English is not 
spoken and teach English and interpret Christianity. 

2. — Literature: Greeks need helpful, constructive 
literature. Translations from English as well as 
original works would be welcome. 

An ethico-religious periodical would be of great 
service. It may be weekly or monthly. It should 
have real, readable matter. Greeks read, think and 
criticize. It should be catching, attractive and sug- 
gestive. True patriotism should occupy its proper 



148 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

place on its pages. Constructive views on religion 
should be emphasized, rather than controversy. Ee- 
ligious mysticism would appeal to many contempla- 
tive minds. History, fiction and poetry, should all 
be utilized in enriching this much needed periodical. 

Some asked whether it would not be a good plan 
to carry out such a program through existing Greek 
periodicals. I believe the editors would welcome 
contributions of the type suggested. But a separate 
work with a definite ethico-religious program would 
meet the need better. It need not compete with other 
publications, as it will be something different from 
the rest. It may have wide circulation in Greece, 
and other lands wherever Greeks are scattered. 

It should be undenominational, setting forth the 
fundamentals and eternal verities of the moral and 
spiritual realm, and the deepest needs of the human 
heart. 

Prominent clergymen and laymen from all the 
churches, including the Greek Orthodox, should be 
invited to write for it. It should have the good will 
of the Greek church authorities. 

3. — Sunday schools: Every Greek church and 
community, every Greek colony, and center, should 
have Sunday schools. There should be classes for 
children, young men and young women, and also for 
men and women. 

Eeligious instruction for children, and young peo- 
ple is absolutely necessary, as the public school does 
not provide and many are unable or have not the 
time to train their children in the ''fear and the 
knowledge of the Lord.'' Many do not attend 
church. There is therefore great danger of the ris- 
ing generation being brought up irreligiously. Sun- 
day school and religious day schools are for this 
evil. 

There is no Sunday school material available for 
Greeks. The ordinary Sunday school publication 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 149 

would not meet the Greek need. New, original work 
is needed and should be adapted to the Greek stand- 
point and peculiarities. Graded work is needed. 
Maps, charts, illustrations, lantern slides, will all 
be something new for the Greeks in this line and 
would attract much attention. 

English might be introduced to good advantage 
as children would be more at home in it. Thus 
Americanization would be combined with religious 
work. 

Religious songs and hymns in modern Greek, 
should be introduced. One of the greatest needs of 
the Greek lies in this line. Sunday schools would 
be the best place to begin to improve it. 

Byzantine music is used in the church services and 
all the hymns and prayers are in ancient Greek. 
Religious instruction and devotion should be in the 
language the people understand. Of course this 
would not mean excluding all the fine spiritual songs 
already familiar to the people, though in ancient 
style. Some of these fine ancient Greek hymns have 
been translated into English. 

Sunday school teachers are needed. In addition 
to the priests, spiritual and religiously inclined men 
and women, competent to teach, should volunteer 
and help. They should be '' mighty in Scriptures, '* 
and experienced in modern Sunday school methods. 

Teachers can use with much profit the ^ Sunday 
school publications, commentaries, and Bible dic- 
tionaries in English, as they will be very likely peo- 
ple familiar with English. 

The whole work should be with the sanction (and 
possibly supervision) of the Greek church authori- 
ties. This would assure the people of the unsec- 
tarian character of the work. 

The Greek Sunday school in America might serve 
as a model for the rest of the Greek world, as the 
need is universal. 



150 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

4. — Preaching: I believe prominent Protestant 
preachers and evangelists would be welcome in 
Greek pulpits, at least occasionally. Special meet- 
ings might be arranged where prominent men might 
speak. Such a work would inspire both the clergy 
and the laity. 

5. — Conferences of the priests and other leaders in 
Greek commimities: Owing to distance and matters 
of expenses and also for lack of organization, there 
has never been any attempt to bring the leaders to- 
gether for religious conferences. Political and pa- 
triotic conferences have taken place at times. A 
meeting of all the prominent Greek leaders, to dis- 
cuss the urgent religious need and question, would 
give a splendid opportunity to hear some of the out- 
standing religious leaders in America. The whole 
movement should be pervaded with an atmosphere of 
devotion, spiritual vision and unsectarian Christian 
fellowship. 

Such a conference might serve as a model and 
stimulus to the whole Greek church in the world, for 
it would be unique. Meetings of the higher clergy 
for discussion of ecclesiastical and dogmatic mat- 
ters, have taken place, but no conference of the type 
mentioned above is in existence in the Greek church. 
Bishops need it ; priests need it ; theological students, 
and all the people need it. Large crowds gather at 
festivals, monasteries, and shrines. A great meet- 
ing for this purpose would be epoch making. 

6. — Social centers: To counteract the coffee-houses 
and the gambling centers, social centers should be 
opened in all the Greek communities and colonies. 
Various features in settlement work, institutional 
churches, Y. M. C. A. and clubs, might be selected 
and adapted to the peculiar needs of the Greeks with 
doubtless very good results. "What is good in the 
coffee-house might be retained, and American in- 
door games introduced. In order to keep the young 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 151 

from evil influences they should be provided with 
wholesome and innocent amusement. Men without 
homes, should find a place where they would feel at 
home, refreshed and cheered up. 

Such centers should have employment bureaus, 
and lists of furnished rooms and apartments and 
other facilities to help the immigrants when they 
first arrive. 

Such social centers might attend to the needs of 
the sick and the poor also. Applications often come 
to the Greek Relief Committee, who find it difficult 
to assist the applicants, as the committee's own ob- 
ject is to help the refugees and orphans, victims of 
the late war, and there is no organization in exis- 
tence to which such applications could be referred. 

Most of the above suggestions are applicable to 
all the Greeks including the Protestants. As re- 
gards the social centers and Sunday school work in 
particular, they could all cooperate. But some spe- 
cial provision should be made for the Protestants in 
certain respects. 

7. — Greek Protestants: The existing stations 
should be strengthened and made models to social 
and conmiunity centers among the Greeks in general. 
Sunday schools, and Young People's Societies, might 
easily be developed among them as they have already 
beginnings of such work. 

The Protestants can not go back to the old church 
but they desire to worship God according to the dic- 
tates of their conscience, and wish to bring up their 
children in accordance mth that comdction. Their 
work, as in the old country, would serve as a stimu- 
lus to the wider work of the Greek churches in 
America. 

Greek evangelists. — As Greek Protestants are scat- 
tered in various states and many receive no church 
ministrations, it would be an excellent thing if one 
or two evangelists could visit the principal centers 



152 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

and take care of them. He could start evangelistic 
work in those centers and thus have a nucleus to 
strengthen the Greek evangelical work. 

8. — Above everything else the whole country in- 
cluding the Greeks needs men of God, filled with the 
Spirit to proclaim messages from above, to set forth 
fearlessly and with vigor the eternal truth of the 
Kingdom of God; men of the type of Isaiah and 
other prophets who heard voices from the center of 
things and proclaimed them courageously to their 
generation. Unless such voices are heard the coun- 
try is in danger of falling into the thraldom of ma- 
terialism, worshiping luxury, and material enjoy- 
ment. Happily such voices are not scarce. Would 
that they would resound louder and in wider circles. 



Appendix I 

GREEK NEWSPAPERS IN THE UNITED 
STATES 

Atlantis, Daily and Monthly, 203 W. 25th St., N.Y.C. 

National Herald, Daily and Monthly, 146 W. 26th St., 
N.Y.C. 

The Loyal, "Weekly, 160 E. 72nd St., N.Y.C. 

California, Weekly, 340 3d St., San Francisco, Cal. 

Prometheus, Weekly, 725 Harrison St., San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Greek Newspaper, Tarpon Springs, Fla. 

Greek Star, 130 N. Wells St., Chicago, HI. 

Independent, 610 Blue Island Ave., Chicago, HI. 

Neiv Era, Illustrated Semi-monthly, 600 Blue Island 
Ave., Chicago, 111. 

Saloniki, Weekly, 748 Blue Island Ave., Chicago, 111. 

Demonios, Weekly, 55 Andrew St., Lynn, Mass. 

People, Weekly, 62 Pleasant St., Lynn, Mass. 

Progress, Weekly, 1034 Dime Bank Bldg., Detroit, 
Mich. 

Campana, Humorous Bi- Weekly, 54 W. 28th St., 
New York City. 

Evzonos, Weekly, 134 W. 2nd St. S., Salt Lake City, 
Utah. 

Light, Weekly, 16 S. Fourth Work St., Salt Lake 
City, Utah. 

Religious Echo, Monthly, 159 Oak St., Chicago, 111. 

The Liberal Bulletin, Weekly, 133 E. 35th St., New 
York City. 

Lacedaemon, Weekly, 251 E. 31st St., New York City. 

National Renaissance, Monthly, 125 State St., Brook- 
lyn, N.Y. 

153 



154 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Greek Telegraph, Daily, 709 Folsom St., San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Greeh Daily, Daily, 768 S. Halstead St., Chicago, 111. 

Aletheia, Monthly, 311 Market St., Lowell, Mass. 

Angeliaforos or {Messenger), Weekly, 311 Market 
St., Lowell, Mass. 

Telegraphos, Weekly, 515 Market St., Lowell, Mass. 

Keravnos, Drummer St., Lowell, Mass. 

Eagle, Weekly, 267 Pine St., Manchester, N.H. 

Ergatis, Weekly, 61 Pine St., Manchester, N.H. 

Elpis (Hope), Monthly, 4747 Paulina St., Chicago, 
111. 

Ecclesiastical Keryx {Herald), Weekly, 140 E. 72nd 
St., New York City. 

The New World, Weekly, 436 4th Ave., Pittsburgh, 
Pa. 



Appendix II 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BOOKS ON GREEKS IN GENERAL. AND THE VARIOUS TOPICS 
TOUCHED UPON IN THIS STUDY 

The Orient and Greece, Botsford, Macmillan, 1902. 
Greek Art and National Life, Smith, Scribner, 1914. 
Social Life of Greece, Mahaffy, MacmiUan, 1902. 
Destruction of the Greek Empire, Pears, Longmans, 

1903. 
Greek War for Independence, Phillipps, Scribner, 

1897. 
Christian Greece, Bikelas (Translation), Gardiner, 

London, 1890. 
Greek and Eastern Churches, Adeney, Scribner, 

1908. 
Study of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lacey, Gor- 

ham, 1912. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY \i55 

Study in Social Heredity as illustrated in Greek 

People^ Lacey. 
Neighbors, Lacey, Department of Missions, P. E. 

Church, 1920. 
Foreigners or Friends, Bukgess. 
Greek Lands and Letters, Allinson, Honsrhton, 

1909. 
Greece and the Aegean Islands, Makden, Houghton, 

1907. 
Aegean Days, J. J. Mannatt, Murray, London, 1911. 
Vacation Days in Greece, Eichaedsoit, Scribner, 

1904. 
Greek Life in Town and Country, "W. Miller, George 

Newnes, London, 1915. 
Modern Greece, Jebb, Macmillan, 1901. 
Greece, Her Progress and Present Position, A. R. 

Eandabe, Putnam, 1867. 
New Greece, Sekgeant, Fisher Unwin, London, 1897. 
Greece of XX Century, Martin, London, 1913. 
Athens, the Violet Crowned, Whiting, Little, Brown 

& Co., 1913. 
The Balkans, Sloane, Meth. Book Concern, 1914. 
Hellas and the Balkan Wars, Cassavetti, Dodd, 

Mead, 1914. 
The War in Europe, A. B. Haet, Appleton, 1914. 
With the Greeks in Thessaly, Rose, L. C. Page & Co,, 

1898. 
The Balkan Wars, Schueman, Princeton Press, 1914. 
When I was a Boy in Greece, Demetrios, Lathrop, 

Leo Shephard, 1913. 
Greece of the Hellenes, Garnett, Pittman, London, 

1914. 
Letter from Greece, J. Navrocordato, Seeker, Lon- 
don, 1914. 
Greek Immigration, Fairchild, Yale Press, 1912. 
Greeks in America, Burgess, Sherman, French & Co., 

1913. 
On the Trail of the Immigrant, Steiner, Revell, 1906. 



156 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Life Immovable, Gostes Palamas (Translation by A. 

E. Plioiitrides). 
The Byzantine Empire, the Rearguard of Europe, 

E. A. TwoRD, Harvard Press, 1920. 
The Greeks of To-day, Tuckerman, Putnam Sons, 

London, 1872. 
Eelladian Vistas, Don. D. Quinn, Yellow Springs, 

O., 1920. 
Tales from a Greeh Island, Dragoumis, Houghton, 

Boston, 1910. 
In Argolis, George Horton. 
Modern Athens, George Hortoist. 
Isles and Shri7ies of Greece, S. J. Barrows. 
Student's History of the Greek Church, A. H. Hore. 
The Organization of the Orthodox Eastern Churches, 

Margaret Dampier. 
Service Book of the Greco-Russian Church, Trans- 
lated by Isabel Hapgood, Houghton, Mifflin. 
The Catechism of the Orthodox Eastern Church, 

Ignatius Moschakes. 
Catechism of Christian Doctrine, X. Moschou. 
Hindrance and Progress in the Modern Greek 

Church, Const. Callinicos. 
The Church and the Eastern Empire, H. F. Tozer, 

^* Epochs of Church History.'^ 
Hymns of the Greek Church, John Brownlie. 
Christian Americanization, Charles A. Brooks, Mis- 
sionary Education Movement, N.Y., 1919. 
Leadership of New America, Archibald McClure, 

George H. Doran, N.Y., 1916. 
Immigrant Forces, AVilliam P. Shriver, Missionary 

Education Movement, New York, 1913. 
Races and I m^ni grants in America, J. K. Commons, 

The Macmilian Co., New York, 1916. 
The Races of Europe, E. A. Grosvenor, The National 

Geographic Magazine, Dec. 1918. 
Dictionary of Races or People, 1911. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 157 

The People of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, New 
York. 

United States Religious Census Report, 1906. 

The Unify of the Greek Race, R. M. Burrows. 

Greeks and To-morrow, Z. Ferriman, American Hel- 
lenic Society. 

Hellenism in Asia Minor, K. Dicterich, American 
Hellenic Society. 

Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey since the begin- 
ning of the European War, Carroll N. Brown, 
American Hellenic Society. 

Memorandum presented by the Greek Me^nbers of 
the Turkish Parliament to the American Com- 
mission on Mandates in Turkey, American Hel- 
lenic Society. 

An Ethnological Map of the starting of Hellenism in 
the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor, George 
SoTERiADES, E. Stamford, Lon. 1918. 

The Greeks in Smyrna, London, 1920. 

Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey before the 
European War, Rev. Alex. Papadopoulos, So- 
ciety of Unredeemed Greeks. 

Greeks in America, Seraphim Canoutas. 

Greece before the Peace Conference of 1919, Eletj- 
THERios Venizelos, American Hellenic Society. 

Eleutherios Venizelos, S. A. Xanthaki, New York, 
1916. 

The Greeks Triumphant, A. H. Trapmann, London, 
1915. 

Reports of the Anglo-Hellenic League, London, 
1913-1921. 

Turkey, Greece and the Great Powers, George R. 
Abbott, London, R. Scott. 

Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Henry Morgen- 
THAU, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1918. 

Under the Turk in Constantinople, George R. Ab- 
bott, Macmillan & Co., 1920. 



158 THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 

Turkey and Its Peoples, Sir Edwin Peaks, London, 

Methuen & Co. 
Fifty Years in Constantinople and Recollections of 

Robert College, George Washburn, Houghton, 

Mifflin & Co. 
Turkey of the Ottomans; Home Life in Turkey; 

Balkan Home Life, Lucy M. J. Garnett. 
Constantine I and the Greek People, Peyton Hob- 
ben, Century Co., 1920. 
Ex-King Constantine and the War, George M. 

Melas, London, Hutchinson & Co. 
Eleutherios Venizelos, Herbert Adams Gibbon. 
The New Map of Asia, 1900-1912, Herbert Adams 

Gibbon, Century Co. 
Leavening of the Levant, Joseph K. Greene, The 

Pilgrim Press, Boston. 
History of the Protestant Missions in the Near East, 

Julian Richter. 
Annual Reports of the American Board of Foreign 

Missions and Missionary Herald. 
The Near East Crossroads of the World, Wm. H. 

Hall, Interchurch Movement, with good bibli- 
ography. 
The Cradle of the War, H. Charles Woods, 1918, 

Boston, Brown & Co. 
Lowell Institute Lectures. 
Turkey a World Problem of To-day, Talcott Wht- 

liams, Doubleday, Page & Co. 



INDEX 



Agriculture, 34; American ma- 
chines, 35. 

Americanization, 86, 110, 112, 
113, 114, 144, 146, 149. 

Anglican Church, 61. 

Appendices, 153. 

Balkan League, 24. 
Banks, 31, 83. 
Books, 109. 

Coffee houses, 46, 47, 84, 88, 92, 

103, 115, 146, 150. 
Constantine — Field Marshal, 23; 

King, 25; break with Veni- 

zelos, 25; overthrown (1917), 

26; restored, 27. 
Constantinople, fall of, 17, 

Dairying, 35. 

Dark Ages of Greece, 61. 

Divorce, 91. 

Dowries, 48. 

Eastern Orthodox Church (See 
Greek Orthodox). 

Economic conditions abroad, 38; 
in U. S., 79. 

Education: Greek fondness for, 
41; need of, 145-147; Ameri- 
can schools, 44; advanced, 
schools, 44; French schools, 
44; girls, 42; Greeks in public 
schools, 97-101, 107; Greeka In 
schools in Turkey, 43; Greek 
schools in Turkey and Asia, 
412-44; religious instruction, 
43; parochial schools, 108. 

Emigration, 30. 

Emigration from U. S., 77; rea- 
sons for, 77. 

English language, 144-147. 

Evangelical Church in Greece, 64. 

Extermination of Greeks by 
Turks, 22. 



exports and imports, 31, 32; 
prosperity, 37; revenue and 
expenditure, 37; roads, 35. 

Greek Colonies, 119; communi- 
ties, 118; diet, 36; good will 
to U. S., 96, 97; industries, 
33; life simple, 36; loyalty 
during Great War, 115; pa- 
triotism, 50; restaurants, 81; 
thrift, 86; traits good, 96; 
evil, 96. 

Greek Evangelical Alliance, 65. 

Greek Evangelists needed, 151. 

Greek press (see Newspapers). 

Greek Protestants, 70, 71, 130, 
144, 151; worldly, 130. 

Greek Puritans, 59. 

Greek Relief Committee, 115, 
116. 

Greek Societies, 102-107; Pan- 
Hellenic Union, 105; Pan- 
Epirotic Union, 106; benevo- 
lent, 115-117; constructive, 
102. 

Greeks in business, 80-84; rela- 
tion to other races, 94; racial 
intermarriage, 95; in Ameri- 
can universities, 98-100. 

Greek Orthodox Church, 54-59; 
attendance, 124; communion, 
126; doctrinal standards, 55; 
fast days, 125; influence of 
Passover, 130; organization, 
54; patriarchate, 54: posture 
in prayer, 126; Sacraments, 
56; supervision, 118; State 
Church, 55, 61 ; value of 
ritual, 130; worldliness, 125. 

Greek Orthodox Church in U. S., 
118-132; and Greek politics, 
120-122. 

Greek Orthodox priests, 122; 
dress, 124; salaries, 123. 

Greek Unity, 19-21. 

Helicon, 99. 

Hellenism spread by Romans, 17. 

Hellas, origin, 15. 



Family life, 47, 49, 91. 
Filioque, 57. 

Greece, ancient and modern, 16; Image controversy, 58. 

159 



160 



THE GREEKS IN AMERICA 



Immigration (Greek) to U. S., 
38; causes of, 38; early, 40; 
later, better class, 40; dis- 
tribution, 75; 3 per cent law, 
41; married and single, 76; 
future of, 40. 

Industries, 33, 34. 

Julian Calendar, 126. 

Kalopothakes, M.D., 63. 
King, Jonas, 63. 

Language, 51; demotic, 52; 
purist, 52. 

Leadership, need and sources of, 
in Turkey, 53, 54; in America, 
111; personnel. 111; trained 
in U. S., 139. 

Literature: books, 137; news- 
papers, 137; tracts, 137, 138; 
new needed, 138, 147. 

Lucaris, Cyril, 60. 

Marriage, 95; intermarriage, 95. 

Megali (great idea), 21. 

Meletios, Archbishop, 58 66, 71, 
119-121, 122, 142. 

Military revolution of Ghoudi, 
23. 

Military service in Turkey, 39. 

Minerals, 35. 

Misunderstandings corrected, 116, 
117. 

Moral Standards, 9i2-93. 

Morals: drink, 49, 90; gambling, 
46, 89; sex morality, 48; un- 
truthfulness, 49. 

Navigation, 33, 83. 

Newspapers: abroad, 46; in 
U. S., 109, 110; services of, 
110; list of, 153, 154. 

Neighborhood Life, 92. 

New Testament translation, 70. 

Papacy, pretensions of, 57, 58. 
Peasants, 40. 
Plymouth Brethren, 64. 
Protestant Missions among 

Greeks abroad, 62; in U. S., 

133, 135. 
Protestantism in Turkey, 65. 



Recreation, 46; athletics, 46; 
games, 46; theaters, 47. 

Religious break-up, forms of, 
128; classification in Turkey, 
67. 

Religious realignments, 129; ap- 
proach, 132. 

Roads, 35. 

Sabbath observance, 104, 125. 

Separated churches, 57. 

Sevres, treaty of, 21. 

Social conditions abroad, 41 ; in 
U. S., 88; housing in Greece 
in towns, 45; in interior, 45; 
housing in U. S., 85; sanita- 
tion, 45; recreation, 46. 

Social life, picnics, 90. 

Social centers needed, 150. 

Socialism, 50. 

Societies: abroad, 46; in U. S., 
102-107. 

Sunday schools, 148-149. 

Theaters, 8, 47. 

Training schools, 142. 

Turkish oppression, 17; mas- 
sacre of Greek Christian, 17; 
Chios, 18; program of exter- 
mination, 22. 

Unrest, small, 87. 

Venizelos, 23, 24, 25, 70; dis- 
missed by Constantine, 26; at 
Paris and San Remo, 26, 27; 
defeated by plebiscite, 27; 
causes of defeat, 28; anathe- 
matized, 120. 

Venizelist party, 26. 

Wages in Greece, 36; in U. S., 

86. 
War for independence, 18. 
War with Turkey, 1897, 20. 
Wars, Balkan, 21; First, 25; 

Second, 25. 
War with Kemalists, 1920, 29. 
World War, 21, 25; and Greece, 

27; influence on Morals, 48. 

Y. M. C. A., 12, 117, 141, 150. 
Y. W. C. A., 114, 117. 



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